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THE F. GUTEKUNST CO. PRIN7. 



AUTOGRAPHICAL NOTES 



FROM THE 



LIFE AND LETTERS 



OF 



EZRA MICHENER, M, D, 



PHILADELPHIA : 

FRIENDS' BOOK ASSOCIATION, 

FIFTEENTH AND RACE STS. 

1893. 



a^oV 



/ 






Copyrighted, 1893. 



PREFACE. 

Autobiography records the circumstances which 
tended to mould the character of the writer, and which 
furnished the incentives to action. It traces their in- 
fluence upon his life movements, whether for good or 
for evil, and draws lessons of instruction for the future 
from the experience of the past. The task which it 
imposes is alike difficult and dangerous ; it relates to 
one's self, it is eminently egotistical, and it belongs to 
a period of life when the lengthening shadows of even- 
ing have darkened the landscape and obscured the 
vision of the writer. 

I have often been solicited, even up here among the 
nineties, to write out some notes of my previous life ; 
but the queries have always arisen, What should I 
write ? Would my comparatively obscure life afford 
reminiscences worthy of such perpetuation ? 

It is well known that I was born in obscurity, a mere 
farm-boy, with no other means of social or scholastic 
education than that which the farm and day-school of 
four- score years ago afforded. 

It is equally well known that later, in addition to the 
arduous and exacting duties of a country doctor, I had 
to carry the providence of a large family and the man- 
agement of a farm. Add to these adverse conditions 
that I was almost entirely isolated from the seats of 
learning, from scientific libraries, and from personal 
intercourse with the cultivators of science. 

(iii) 



IV PREFACE. 

It is true that niy impulse was forward, and I may 
sometimes have uttered advanced thoughts of some 
merit, but they have been too often lost in the distant 
past or absorbed by more modern developments. 

I have been careful to preserve serial copies of the 
printed effusions of my pen, however ephemeral their 
import, together with many memoranda and comments 
relating to my life histoty. In this collection of over 
five hundred items there are many which had a mere 
local or temporary application, and require no further 
consideration ; some that contained, at the period when 
they were written, an advanced thought which may be 
worth preserving ; some that will only need a brief 
summary of their import ; some that may be better 
represented by appropriate extracts, and some that will 
prefer to vindicate their claims in their own way. This 
task I assigned to my self two years ago, but the loss of 
m}^ dear Mary, and the severe bodily injury that I 
received a few days after from a fall, have frustrated 
that intention. I now feel that the treasure is no longer 
mine ; it must soon become the propert} r of others whose 
dut}^ it will be to direct its disposal, whether it may 
be to make brief selections from the mass for preserva- 
tion as an incentive to emulation among the young, or 
to consign the whole to merited oblivion. 

E. Michener. 

Sylvania, 2/j.th of nth month, 1886. 



CONTENTS. 



1794 to 1808. 
Parentage and Birth — First Eecollections — Autobiography — 
Death of My Grandfather — Dr. John Ross — Inoculation 
for Small- Pox — Anecdote of a Walk — Pious and Prudent 
Mother — Danger of Alcoholic Medicines — Whittling — 
Home Education — The Whistle — Incident — School — 
Daniel Hoopes — Joseph Mull — Model School — Townsend 
Haines and Brother — Competition in Arithmetic — Diffi- 
cult Question Solved — Book of Discipline Copied — Wil- 
liam Jackson — Samuel Spencer and others — Long meet- 
ings — John Hallo well — Franklin's Book — Farmers' Li- 
brary — John Jackson's Botanical Garden — Boy's Work — 
Gleaning rake — Botanical Books — Rees's Encyclopaedia — 
Scientific Terms, ........ 1 

1808 to 1815. 

My Last School — Algebra and Surveying — A Quandary— My 

Certificate — Plainness — A Remarkable Man, . . .11 

1815 to 1818. 

The Sciences — Scientific Lectures — Philadelphia Dispensary — 
Blood-Lettiug — A Fatal Mistake — The Practice — Obstet- 
rics — The Ergot — Quizzing Club — Southern Dispensary — 
Reported Cases — My Resignation — My Patrons — Samuel 
P. Griffitts, M. D.— The Last Course— A Scare— The Close 
of Lectures — The Green Box — My Notice — A Surprise — 

The Examination— The Finale, 14 

(t) 



vi CONTENTS. 

1818 to 1829. 

The Man at Home — An Ambitions Spider — The Gnardian 
Society — A Literary Clnb — The Change of Living — Onr 
Marriage — Botanical Books — Who Made Him a Drunk- 
ard — Fracture Apparatus — Dysentery — A Nervous Shock 
— A Discovery — The Perplexity of Slavery — Free Labor 
Goods — Home Grown Cotton— Chester County Cabinet — 
Florula Cestrica — Botanical Press — Religious Services — 
A Home, 27 

1829 to 1846. 
My Removal — Reminiscences-— Natural History — Trip to 
Cincinnati — Disease of Hip- Joint — Recovery — Decease of 
My Wife— My Illness — Visit to New Jersey — Second 
Marriage — Visit to New York and Ohio — Visit to Vir- 
ginia — Talks on Slavery, ....... 46 

CORRESPONDENCE AND ESSAYS. 
1846 to 1879. 

Lotteries — Retrospect of Early Quakerism Published — Gen- 
eral Grant and the Indians — Ante-Diluvian and Post- 
Diluvian — Electricity — The Tornado — William D. Hart- 
man, M. D. — A. Sharpless — Tornadoes and Tornado 
Forces — The Conclusion — A Sad Neglect — J. Smith 
Futhey — Gilbert Cope — Early Education Among Friends 
in Chester County, etc., . 62 

1879 to 1887. 

Considerations on the Granting of Licenses to Sell Intoxicating 
Drinks — Heredity of Drunkenness — The Conclusion — 
Essay Prepared for a Temperance Conference — Power of 



CONTENTS. vii 

Appetite — The Granting of Tavern Licenses a Judicial 
Function — Cause and Effect — Distinct Proposition-^A 
Few Facts — A Friendly Letter — Tobacco in Schools — 
Added Evidences — An Open Letter — The Temperance 
Ladder — The Conclusion — A Point of Order and Disci- 
pline — Brief Notes on the Burial Service — Rising in Time 
of Prayer — Capital Punishment — A Plea for Arbitration — 
Reflections on the Subject of a Paid Ministry — Conclusion 
of an Interesting Letter — Other Congratulatory Letters — 
"My Ninety-first Milestone" — "My Milestone Ninety- 
two/' . . . .114 

His Decease — A Brief Retrospect, 201 



AUTOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

FROM THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

EZRA MICHENER, M. D. 



BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. 

I was born on the twenty-fourth day of the Eleventh 
month, 1794, in London Grove Township, Chester Co., 
Pennsylvania, on a farm successively owned and occu- 
pied by my grandfather, father, brother, and nieces, 
four generations. 

My father, Mordecai Michener, was a son of Mordecai 
and Sarah (Fisher) Michener. My mother, Alice 
(Dunn) Michener, was the daughter of Ralph and 
Anna (Heaton) Dunn. 

My parents had four children, Robert, Lydia, Phebe, 
and the baby, whose sur-name was Ezra. This historic 
baby, like other babies, came into the world a mere un- 
conscious mass of plastic clay, to be slowly moulded 
and fashioned into whatever form of the human and 
Divine the force of accompanying circumstances might 
impress upon it. Happily, such are the heaven-im- 
planted instincts of our nature, that even the bab}^ was 
felt to be a loveable object by its parents and worthy of 
their fostering care and tender sympathy, for which I 
have ever owed them a debt of gratitude, an obligation 
which is too easily and too often forgotten. 



2 AUTOGRAPHICAI. NOTES. 

The period from birth up to intelligent consciousness 
is necessarily left an entire blank in an autobiography. 
Could its history be fully written — its experiences of 
pain and pleasure, the time and manner of development 
of the observing and reasoning faculties, and the facility 
with which it acquires a knowledge so diversified, of 
the objects and language about it, perhaps exceeding 
any other period of life— it would probably afford the 
most interesting chapter in the life history of the man. 

The earliest impression, still found on the tablet of 
my memory, and the starting point of this self-told 
history, was the death-bed scene of my grandfather 
Dunn, who died the twenty-third of the Eighth month, 
1797. Consequently I was not then three years old. 
My dear mother led me to the bed-side where the venera- 
ble form lay upon an old corded bed- stead that had 
never seen paint, and which was shaking under him 
from his death struggle. The picture was drawn too 
severely true in its details to have been derived from the 
narrative of others. 

In the next year the late Dr. John Ross came to in- 
oculate us for small-pox. His business was understood, 
but "nothing known, nothing feared ; " my arm was 
bared and I was called up to be scratched, nothing 
daunted, as I was not hurt I did not complain, and the 
others so encouraged came out of their hiding places. 
The disease proved to be very light, but the treatment 
was not pleasant — a cold room with half rations caused 
many expressions of dissatisfaction. 

My dear Uncle Henry and Aunt Sarah Simmons, 
with some cousins, made us a visit. My brother, sis- 
ters, and cousins, all several years older than myself, 
started for a walk, and child-like I ran after, but was 



EZRA MICHENKR, M. D. 3 

soon remanded as too little to go along. My uncle 
observed the movement and related it several years after 
its occurrence. He said I stood for a few minutes 
looking after the children, then turned back and sat 
down in my little chair on the porch without saying 
anything. After sitting sober and sad for a few minutes 
I soliloquized, " Well, it is a fine thing to be satisfied,' ' 
and the gloom had passed away. This may be con- 
sidered a trivial incident, but it brings a grateful remem- 
brance of the pious care and training, even at that early 
age, of a thoughtful, prudent mother, which has been a 
perpetual blessing to me for almost a century. 

It w T as about this period that I became a would-be- 
drunkard. For some years of early childhood I was 
subject to frequent, often daily attacks of colic, for which 
my dear mother very kindly and quite as innocently 
made use of the then and still popular remedies for 
family use, mints, cordials, cherry bounce, etc., for 
their name is legion. They consist essentially of alco- 
hol in some form. While they may sometimes relieve 
present pain they are powerless to prevent its return, 
if they do not promote it ; but they do certainly and 
speedily create an appetite, a craving and fondness for 
alcoholic liquors, which too surely lead the possessor 
down to ruin and a drunkard's grave. Such was the 
appetite which I acquired for alcohol in almost any 
form that more than four-score years of abstinence have 
hardly abated its intensity. But my dear mother ! 
Little did that excellent woman suppose that she was 
making and had virtually made her darling baby a 
drunkard. She had never made him drunk, but she 
had formed and fostered an inordinate appetite for that 
which would lead to drunkenness, and jeopardized the 



4 AUTOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 

temporal and eternal welfare of the coming man. Had 
that mother been aware of the mischief she was doing 
she might have preferred to lay her tender charge in the 
grave rather than incur the risk of becoming the author 
of his ruin. The ample and wide-spread knowledge on 
this subject has left mothers of the present day without 
excuse, yet it is greatly to be feared that improvement 
has not kept pace with knowledge. 

A knife for a boy, a doll for a girl ; these generally 
represent a little family kindergarten in the home circle. 
They are, perhaps, the best, as they certainly are the 
most desirable incentives to industry, manual dexterity, 
and mental reflection. Nor is the mere possession suffi- 
cient ; they should be encouraged, instructed, and 
assisted in their work. 

Whittling generally begins with the period of the 
knife and the trowsers, but is not restricted to any age 
or class of tools. Some whittlers never get beyond the 
knife, and spend their lives trying to whittle nothing 
down to a point, others whittle with an object in view ; 
if the knife fails, they seek other means, the hatchet, 
the saw, the plane. They go on increasing their skill 
and knowledge until they can whittle a steamboat, a 
locomotive, an iron or a cotton mill ; anything within 
the sphere of human achievement. 

It is impossible to say when my schooling com- 
menced. My dear grandmother Dunn, now left a widow 
and released from the active cares of the household, 
sought relief from her loneliness by becoming my 
teacher. My earliest distinct recollection of book learn- 
ing is that of reading to her from the old family Bible 
while she was engaged in spinning. She had not 
studied and did not teach the art of good reading, but 



EZRA MICHENER, M. D. 5 

her dull ear and the hum of her wheel led me uncon- 
sciously to adopt two of its more important conditions — 
a loud voice and a distinct articulation — a sure remedy 
for fast reading. The culpable neglect of these con- 
ditions has been poorly compensated for, by the intro- 
duction of more fashionable methods. 

It was the much needed caution of Dr. Franklin, 
' ' Don't pa}" too much for the whistle. ' ' In my seventh 
year I imprudently spent a cold, wet spring day in the 
open barn with some carpenters ; this was my whistle. 
The next morning I found myself with a severe attack 
of acute inflammatory rheumatism — a price very far 
beyond the value of the article. 

The disease was at first spinal, but soon passed by 
successive stages to every part of the system. The 
acute pain did not last man}" days, but the swelling, 
soreness, and entire loss of muscular power was far 
more enduring. Sore and helpless I was carried from 
the bed and placed on pillows in a reclining chair. 
While in this condition, with my grandmother sitting 
by me one warm summer day, we saw through the 

open door D P , a worth}" young man who 

had become religiously insane, approaching the house. 
He was noisy and making many gesticulations, but he 
was harmless and excited no fear. He walked in with- 
out noticing any one, and came to where I was sitting. 
Suddenly he stopped talking and stood still for a minute 
•or two, no one speaking a word. He then kneeled, 
laid his hand on my lap, and made what seemed to us 
an appropriate and eloquent prayer for my restoration. 
On rising he walked quietly out toward his home with- 
out speaking to any one ; my father followed him and 
took him home, apparently a sane man for the time 



6 AUTOGRAPHlCAIv NOTES. 

being. The incident was extraordinary, and I have 
endeavored to state the facts truly. My condition evi- 
dently exerted a calm and soothing influence upon his 
excited mind. How far he was made an instrument 
for my restoration may be less obvious ; certain it is, 
that I gradually recovered, and have had little or no 
return of that inexorable disease for more than four- 
score 3^ears. There were various opinions in regard to 
it then, and the}^ would hardly be more united in these 
days of easy, cheap, and pharisaical praying so fashiona- 
ble everywhere, and on all occasions. It cannot be 

supposed that D P \s prayer was of this 

ephemeral character. 

As already mentioned I had learned to read, could 
write pot hooks, and repeat the multiplication table at 
home, and had gone to Daniel Hoopes, and to his suc- 
cessor, Joseph Mull, who was my principal teacher. 
He taught nothing beyond the rudiments, reading, 
writing, and arithmetic, with a smattering of book- 
keeping. No geography or grammar book was ever 
seen in his school ; yet, without any of the modern 
gloss, he was a model teacher. He held the position 
for eight or ten years. In this school, for a time, the 
late Judge Haines and his brothers, Abner and William, 
were my companions and earnest rivals in competitive 
arithmetic. 

This study had been my forte. One day while I 
was wading through fractions in the old Dilworth 
arithmetic, my teacher turned over to a question in the 
double rule of three, saying I would find it " a stumper ;" 
he never had a scholar to do it, and his teacher, an old 
schoolmaster, had told him the same thing. The time 
came. The afternoon and evening were spent in vain. 



EZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. J 

The next not being a school day, I devoted it wholly to 
my question, and retired late at night without finding 
any clue to it, crestfallen and completely "stumped." 
But when I awoke in the morning a change had taken 
place, and I had a clear view of the question. I hastily 
dressed myself, took the slate and worked it off as fast 
as I could write the figures. At school I put it on the 
slate and showed it to the teacher. He immediately 
asked, " Who did that ? " I told him I did not know ; 
somebody had done it while I was asleep. I claim no 
merit for the solution. I could not give it. I know 
that others have had a like experience, proving the 
activity of the mind while the bod}' is in a state of 
apparent unconsciousness. 

Even at this early period I felt that the lessons of the 
schoolroom were only a mea?is y the materials with 
which to build up a noble manhood, but I seemed 
destined to the toil and drudgery of an old time farm 
laborer. The family library consisted of the Bible, 
Testament, Barclay's Apology, the fourth volume of 
Gough's History, and two or three Friends' Journals, 
with Walker's Dictionary — a recent acquisition at the 
instance of the children. 

My personal library contained Robinson Crusoe, Betty 
Brown, The Cuckoo, and, more than all others, a Bible 
a little more than an inch square and about as thick. 
This served as an index to the most interesting texts, 
and served to fix them on the memory. The book of 
Discipline was held by the Yearly Meeting for the use 
of its members. A copy was furnished to each meet- 
ing for discipline. My mother being an overseer, the 
book came to her in time, and I availed myself of the 
opportunity to copy it entire. I now had a book of my 



8 AUTOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 

own in genuine angular chirography. More than fifty 
years later I copied the manuscript Discipline issued in 
1762, containing two hundred and eighty-seven cap folio 
pages. 

At the head of the meeting at this date, eighteen 
hundred and five, sat William Jackson, Samuel Spencer, 
and John Hamilton ; below them George Passmore, 
John Jackson, and John Hallo well, with others. The 
meetings were generally held about two hours, which 
was wearisome to many, and led to unsettlement and a 
continual running in and out, often quite a number on 
their feet at once. Such conduct would now be thought 
inexcusable. Children were taken to meeting more 
generally then .than now, and the older friends were 
more in the practice of taking notice of them and shak- 
ing hands. This was especially true of good old John 
Hallowell, who seemed unwilling to go home until he 
had shaken every boy's hand, sometimes with a squeeze 
that he would remember for hours. 

While laboring under discouragement a friend lent 
me Franklin's little book ; it was opportune. The les- 
sons he taught me were industry, perseverance, self- 
reliance, and the assurance that where there is a will 
there is always a way. 

It was at this critical period of my life that the 

Farmers' Library, of I^ondon Grove, was opened at the 

" house of John Jackson, the botanist and florist. My 

father became a stockholder, and it naturally devolved 

upon me to obtain and return books. 

Here I found an ample variety of most excellent 
reading, and, what was of scarcely less value to me, I 
generally found the librarian in his delightful garden. 
Seeing that I was interested in plants and flowers, he 



EZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 9 

took pleasure in leading me around to see them, and in 
simple terms explained them to my understanding. In 
the library room it was the same ; the windows had 
their blooming plants, the table was loaded with mineral 
and other specimens, while on the floor stood an elec- 
trical machine, and a Hand Jennie for roving and spin- 
ning cotton. The use of these the owner was ever 
ready to exhibit and explain. He was always read} r , 
too, to advise and assist me in the choice of books. To 
me it seemed enchanted ground. Among the first books 
I read were Mungo Park's Fables, Cook's Voyage 
Around the World, and Darwin's Botanic Garden. 

The library with its accompaniments was the starting 
point of my student life. I now had books for teachers, 
and a profusion of object lessons everywhere around 
me. But even school-days were not all ha^on. The 
boys must rise earlj-, build a rousing fire on the kitchen 
hearth, then go and feed the stock, and perhaps thresh 
oats until breakfast was ready. 

In the harvest of those days hay had to be made and 
dried. Hay making was a reality. Grass cut in the 
morning was spread, in the evening raked into wind- 
rows, perhaps cocked. On the morrow spread, turned, 
raked, and cocked ; and the third day spread, raked 
and housed. All this was done with the scythe, 
hand-rake, and pitch-fork — the mowing-machine, the 
hay-tedder, the horse-rake, and the pitcher or hay- 
fork were all unknown. Grain was cut with the sickle 
or cradle, and raked and bound by hand, with instruc- 
tions when securely tied, to pull out with one hand the 
loose straws from the head of the sheaf, and to rake 
them from the butt, the scatterings to be put in the 



IO AUTOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 

next sheaf. This careful method left little for the 
gleaner. 

I first tried the hand-rake for gleaning, but with poor 
success. I next tried two rakes tied together ; they 
were too light, the teeth too short. I then made a 
heavier rake four feet long, with longer teeth, and hav- 
ing two handles. This answered the purpose better, 
but was wearying. Here it will be seen that I had the 
famous horse-rake, only minus the horse, which no one 
had then thought of supplying. It was not until years 
after that anyone caught the idea of attaching a horse 
to m}^ rake. When we see a new invention, how strange 
it seems that we had not thought of it before ? 

My innate fondness for plants and flowers was fostered 
and intensified by my frequent visits to Harmony 
Grove, but I did not find botanical books : indeed, 
there does not seem to have been any book on the sub- 
ject for beginners, either written by an American, or 
printed in America for several years after. The library 
furnished Rees's New Cyclopoedia in ninety -two half 
volumes, quarto. This work afforded a rich store of 
botanical knowledge. The genera were alphabetical 
with the known species following, but I could seldom 
stumble on the description of the plant before me ; 
when I did so, I wrote down the botanical and common 
names until I had a respectable list. I also made a list 
of the scientific terms as they came under notice, with 
definitions. In this w T ay I unconsciously begun a 
botanical dictionary for future study, a method of 
juvenile authorship, which I have practiced more or 
less during life, and one that I would strongly recom- 
mend to all students. It is a valuable aid to memory. 
A new word or definition arises, is hastily passed over 



EZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. II 

and forgotten ; write it down, and the strength and 
duration of the impression is greatly increased. 

I have already alluded to my early and inordinate 
appetite for alcoholic liquors. While young and re- 
maining mostly at home, I escaped temptation and 
seldom saw much of its dangers, but as I grew older I 
realized my position, and in my fifteenth year I oppor- 
tunely witnessed in a neighboring harvest field, the sad 
effects of the whiskey bottle. I say it was opportune 
for me, as it happily proved the turning point, the 
occasion then and there to form a resolution never more 
to indulge in intoxicating drinks. The result has 
proved most satisfactor}\ It may be noticed here, that 
the fermented liquors were then hardly recognized as 
belonging to the intoxicating class. When I began 
housekeeping nine years after, I put three barrels of 
cider in the cellar for vinegar, and there was also a half 
barrel that I supposed might be needed in other ways ; 
but I had three and a half barrels of vinegar. This 
was the last cider that I stored away for drink. Now 
the mischief of cider drinking is better understood. 

Having exhausted at this period, 181 1, the lore of my 
favorite teacher, I turned for a few weeks to another 
school for the purpose of studying surveying and alge- 
bra, having for some time made the former a private 
study. I, of course, ran hastily over these branches, 
in algebra as far as quadratic equations, in little over 
six weeks, putting all the work down in the " Cypher- 
ing-book." It is, I think, to be regretted that this 
custom is so far lost sight of. Where neatness is en- 
couraged it affords great aid in the use of the pen and 
other instruments. 



12 AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTES. 

A QUANDARY. 

I had now entered my twenty-first year. For two or 
three years past I had sensibly felt that I was not con- 
stituted for farm labor, and occupied my time in teach- 
ing an occasional term, doing some surveying, then 
on the farm again. The spring found me entered as a 
regular farm hand. It proved, however, to be an at- 
tempt to reconcile contradictions — to do that which I 
had not the physical strength to do. Hence, I was 
often obliged to allow my aged father to take the heavy 
end of the log, which was more than I could submit to. 

During the period named I had read many of the 
scientific articles in the ponderous volumes of Rees's 
New Cyclopaedia ; and I had observed that those relating 
to medicine and the cognate branches had become more 
especially interesting. Hence, it is not strange, when 
deliberating on the choice of a profession, that I should 
instinctively turn to the study of medicine. 

The obstacles, indeed, seemed insurmountable. I 
was illiterate, rude in speech and manners, had lived 
very much apart from the outside world, had only seen 
Philadelphia once, and only for three hours. Then 
there was little intercourse between the city and country. 
My cousins, Dr. David Jones Davis and his sister Mary, 
were the only persons whom I knew in the cit}^ ; but 
their living there opened a door of entrance and afforded 
facilities that I could not otherwise have had. 

In the autumn of this year I entered the office and 
family of Dr. D. J. Davis. As I had fully anticipated, 
I found myself in contrast with my surroundings, and 
was often kindly reminded of some country habit, some 
vulgar expression, etc. This was sometimes humili- 



KZRA MICHENER, M. D. 1 3 

ating, sometimes amusing. Once, after days of wet 
weather, the pavements had become quite dirty. On 
coming in I remarked that the pavements were very 
muddy. Cousin Mary rebuked me — that I talked like 
a countryman. The next morning I was standing at 
the door when she passed out to the market. Her first 
step on the pavement w r as upon some mud, and she was 
thrown upon her back. As I gently raised her up and 
led her into the house, I softly whispered in her ear, 
''The pavement is very muddy" This balanced ac- 
counts, and we had a better understanding afterward. 

MY CERTIFICATE. 

My parents had prepared for me a certificate which I 
took w T ith me. When presented to the meeting, Dr. 
Samuel P. Griffitts and another aged Friend were ap- 
pointed to visit and look after me. There could not 
have been a better choice made. The former, especially, 
gave me much salutary advice, and continued a fast 
friend as long as I remained in the city. 

PLAINNESS. 

I had resolved to adhere, under all circumstances, to 
my plain wa}^ of speaking and dressing, and never had 
cause to regret it. When I entered the lecture-room, 
among nearly five hundred students, I was the only one 
whose dress or address indicated a Friend, w T hile there 
were two of the professors and a number of the class 
belonging to our Society. I was, no doubt, despised 
and shunned by a large portion of the class, but I was 
quite as willing to avoid them as they w 7 ere me. I 
could readily affiliate with those whose purpose was 



14 AUTOGRAPHIC AI, NOTES. 

Study ; I did not wish others. My plain coat was an 
excellent preserver. 

I was indeed surprised to find how much attraction 
and repulsion there was in a plain dress ; perhaps in 
the assurance it afforded of quiet, orderly living, and 
close attention to study. 

A REMARKABLE MAN. 

See Intelligencer and Journal. 1886—5 — 29, p. 345. 

THE SCIENCES. 

The science of medicine comprehends or demands 
tribute from almost every other department of human 
knowledge, and has contributed largely to their general 
cultivation. 

In the spring of 1816 I attended the lectures and 
herborization of Dr. Wm. P. C. Barton, on botany, 
which was a noble treat ; but there was still no book 
suited for beginners. His Flora Philadelphicae was not 
published till two years after. 

SCIENTIFIC LECTURES. 

My preceptor's penchant for lecturing was, perhaps, 
in excess of his qualifications ; but it was opportune for 
me. The first was a series of lectures on natural and 
experimental philosophy. I pre-studied each lecture, 
assisted in the preparation for it, and by becoming 
familiar with the apparatus and its use, was allowed to 
perform the experiments as the lecture proceeded. It 
was delightful. The lecture on electricity was a splendid 
affair — an elegant machine, a battery of six large jars, 



EZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 15 

etc., etc. The experiments had been successful. The 
battery had been standing for some time with a mod- 
erate charge. The room was crowded around the table, 
which was loaded with apparatus. Suddenly the bat- 
tery was discharged by some means quite unknown to 
us. All that I know is that my arms and thorax formed 
a part of the circuit, though several feet away from it. 
The explosion caused many to rush out of the house, 
but I was the only sufferer. The shock was severe, 
yet I did not fall. The arms were momentarily para- 
lyzed, and the respiration, if not the action of the heart, 
was for a few moments suspended. If it had crossed 
the brain it would likely have been fatal. 

THE PHIIvA.DEI.PHIA DISPENSARY. 

In the early summer of 1 8 1 6 a vacancy occurred in 
this institution, then the only one of the kind in the 
city. Through the kindness of Drs. Davis and Griffitts 
I was elected house student. My salary w T as /J50 a 
year, my boarding, with the house apothecary, at $3.50 
per week. My duties were to assist the apothecary, do 
the bleeding, etc. , etc. , and render such services as the 
attending physicians might require. The practice of 
the institution was attended to by six physicians in 
rotation. The patients, including those who came to 
the house, amounted to more than 4000 annually. 

It is due to the memory of the venerable Dr. Griffitts, 
who was more than seventy years old, and the grand 
patron of that noble charity, that he visited almost 
daily, and was ever ready, with words of cheer and in- 
struction, to open the rich stores of his experience for 
my instruction. I still recur to those lessons with 
grateful remembrance. 



l6 AUTOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 

BLOOD-LETTING. 

Bleeding was then strongly in the ascendant. I was 
often directed to bleed some ten, or even up to twenty a 
day — always by measure — gx-gxx, etc. I had studied 
the effects likely to be produced as the evidence of its 
beneficial effects, but was often sorely disappointed. 
Sometimes the patient did not bear half the quantity 
ordered. Sometimes the whole quant ity seemed to 
produce no effect. Why was this ? Obviously the 
doctor was in fault. He could not tell how T much blood 
would be required to produce a certain effect. That 
can only be determined at the time. 

The house physicians accepted these suggestions, and 
agreed, if I would give it attention, that they would 
leave it wdth me. It was a heavy responsibility ; but 
the prescriptions now came with a simple vs. I bled 
tremblingly, watching the pulse, the respiration, the 
skin, the subsidence of pain, etc., etc. The change was 
soon observed, and inquiries w T ere made how much 
blood had been drawn in this or that case. Thus, I 
became an expert in the use of the lancet, and may I 
not say, also, in judging of the propriety and the extent 
of its employment, instances of which I have published 
from time to time. 

See Medical and Surgical Reporter, 1869, 6 — 5 ; Country 
Practitioner, 1881, 11 — 19 ; Hand-Book of Eclampsia, 
etc., etc., etc. 

My reliance upon the use of blood-letting has not 
diminished. See my own case, as reported by J. H. 
Stubbs, M. D., Medical a?id Surgical Reporter, 1882, 

7-8. 



EZRA MICHENER, M. D. 1 7 

A FATAL MISTAKE. 

For the last few days I had listened to and studied 
Prof. Physic's lectures on strangulated hernia, when Dr. 
Griffitts called and reported a severe case of colic, a 
patient of Dr. Barnes, which he had just been called to 
see. His description was so similar, almost in the 
language of the lecturer, that I suggested whether it 
might not be hernial. Next day, the patient worse, 
with the same suggestion. But he said they had satis- 
fied themselves on that point, although there was a 
small tumor in the inguinal region. The next morning, 
dead, and a request that I would assist Dr. Barnes in 
the post-mortem, which I gladly embraced. 

We met. "Well, Mr. Michener, I learn that you 
have called in question our diagnosis in this unfortunate 
case." "Not so; but I have feared that it was too 
obscure for discrimination. " On exposure a hard, 
prominent tumor, not larger than a filbert, presented 
over the abdominal ring, without discoloration. "Do 
you call that a hernia?" I examined it carefully, for 
it was the first I had ever seen. I unconsciously shook 
my head. The doctor confidingly took up the knife. 
' ' I will soon show that you are mistaken ; ' ' and drew 
the instrument across the tumor, when, to his horror, 
he cut directly into the included intestine. It is easier 
to imagine than to describe his feelings. He dropped 
the knife, with the exclamation, " My God ! Michener, 
don't you tell this, or it will ruin me." 

How two experienced surgeons could mistake an 
obvious case of hernia for colic is quite inexplicable. 
But mistakes continually occur in the business relations 
of life. It is for this reason that I preserve the case. 



1 8 AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTKS. 

The doctors were not recreant of their duty, and their 
skill as surgeons could not be called in question. Why 
did they mistake ? We only know that men whom we 
may call great — great in knowledge, experience and 
confidence, often make great mistakes. 



THE PRACTICE. 

The happy result of bleeding for effect led to further 
confidence, and I was sometimes requested to attend to 
calls and report to the house physician. This practice 
so increased that during the summer of 1817 the out- 
door service was largely rendered fry me, subject to 
their revision. 

OBSTETRICS. 

I had early formed an acquaintance with a Messey 
Houston, a noted colored midwife who, perhaps, at- 
tended more cases than any other person in the city 
among the poor class. She had the skill to know 7 and 
the prudence to ask for assistance when difficulty pre- 
sented. In this way I was introduced to many cases of 
more than ordinary interest. M} r obstetrical cases 
numbered 220. 

THE ERGOT. 

This singular production had been introduced to the 
profession in 1807 by Dr. Stearns, as an ad partum oc- 
clerandum, but its effects were still very imperfectly 
known. Encouraged by Prof. Thomas P. James, and 
an interesting letter from Dr. Stearns, I employed the 
remedy, under various conditions, in about forty cases, 



EZRA MICHENBR, M, D. 19 

and reported results. I believe that I was the first to 
employ and recommend its use as a uterine tonic, in 
cases threatening abortion. 

See Medical and Surgical Reporter, August 20, 1870, p. 145. 

QUIZZING CLUBS. 

In these clubs each member represented one of the 
profession, and were thought indispensable adjuncts to 
study. Even there a stumper was often felt unpleas- 
antly. Sometimes they w T ere only amusing. I was 
told one day that Jesse Coates, late Dr. Coates, of Coates- 
ville, had a stumper for me. We soon after met on the 
street. He came up in his usual pleasant manner : 
1 ' Michener, how many bones in the skeleton ? " " About 
247. ' ' ' ' Coates, how many bones in the head ? " After 
some hesitation he answered " Faith, I don't know r ; I 
will tell you their names, if you will count them." 
Thus, the stumper was stumped. 

SOUTHERN DISPENSARY. 

During the summer our company started a Southern 
Dispensary, away down in Shippen Street. At their 
request I went dow T n on prescribing days to assist in its 
management for several weeks. Its surroundings were 
loathsome and unpleasant. 

I had become identified with our institution and its 
numerous wards. I was personally known wherever 
its patronage extended. Perhaps my patrons were 
numerically more numerous than those of anyone in 
the city. I felt that much responsibility rested upon 
my shoulders. The burden was heavy — too heavy to 
be carried during the lecture season of my last course. 
What was to be done ? 



20 AUTOGRAPHIC AL NOTES. 

REPORTED CAvSES. 

i. Case of ovarian disease, with post-mortem. 2. 
Case of puerperal fever, during the terrible, fatal and 
widespread epidemic of 181 7. My purpose was to show 
the w T onderful effects of copious bleeding in this disease. 
They were published in the New York Medical Reposi- 
tory, then the only medical journal known to me. In 
the latter case, in order to draw attention to the most 
essential point, I said that after opening a vein in each 
arm I sat down to watch its effects. This apparent 
sang froid afforded my friends some amusement. 

MY RESIGNATION. 

After due consideration I reluctantly handed in my 
resignation to a meeting of the Board of Managers. 
They appointed a committee to see me and try to reach 
some arrangement that would permit me to remain. 
This failed. On their report the Board accepted the 
resignation, passed a resolution of thanks, and voted 
me a bonus of $50 for extra service. Thus ended one 
of the happiest — may I not hope, one of the most 
useful — periods of a long life. 

MY PATRONS. 

Much has been said, and well said, about the danger 
of young people going into the cities. But there has 
not been enough said that the danger, perhaps the 
fault, is too often their own. Here, for eighteen months, 
I have spent much of my time ; not so much in the 



EZRA MICHKNER, M. D. 21 

open streets as in the alleys and lanes, and among their 
inhabitants, where vice and corruption of every grade 
is most rampant. And I can bear this testimony — that 
I was never treated with disrespect except in two in- 
stances, both of whom were drunk. Nor was I molested 
and annoyed, as young nien often were, by the infamous 
street-w r alkers, either on the public streets or when 
called on business into their dens of wickedness. Cir- 
cumspect watching and close attention to business were 
my protectors, and it is w r ith pleasure that I bear testi- 
mony to the little innate goodness that may be found in 
the very worst of characters. 

SAMUEL P. GRIFFITTS, M. D. 

I have said he was the patron of our noble charity. 
He was also my patron. The feeling of gratitude for a 
benefactor is a virtue ; the expression of it is a duty for 
the encouragement of others. He was neat, circum- 
spect and systematic. The oldest physician in the city, 
he had never kept a riding vehicle ; had worn the same 
shoes for three years, the same coat eight years. I 
always found him ready to advise and instruct. When 
the time came for us to separate he said that his pre- 
ceptor had once given him a little advice as a life-maxim, 
worthy to be remembered on all occasions. He had 
found it a good one, and would give it to me — 

Never be in a Hurry, 
Although it may very often be proper and necessary 
to make haste. 

It was with many regrets that I bade farewell to the 
dispensary and its devoted patrons. 



22 AUTOGRAPHIC AI< NOTES. 



THE LAST COURSE. 

To the earnest student his last course of lectures is a 
season of strenuous effort. These, with time, the 
necessary reading, dissections, etc., is a severe tax on 
his physical and mental endurance. Dr. Davis had 
fitted up a private anatomical theatre with a view to a 
private course of lectures. I gladh- accepted the charge 
of the room, and to make the necessary dissections. 
This was as arduous as it was apropos. A class of some 
twenty attended. 

Dr. Davis had been for years out of practical anatomy, 
and sometimes failed to make his demonstrations plain 
to the class ; and, as I had made the preparations, they 
would gather round the table after lecture for me to 
repeat the lesson. Thus, I too became demonstrator of 
anatomy, a useful service. Thus, for the space of four 
months I retired at two o'clock in the morning, and to 
breakfast before seven. It was, indeed, a severe tax, 
but I bore it beyond expectation. 

A SCARE. 

Our anatomical room was entered by an outside stairs 
to the third floor. An old man had it in charge. One 
evening as the class left for tea I locked the door, not 
noticing that he was inside. In the evening a student 
wanted to get in. When I opened the door the old 
man was sitting inside, in a crusty mood, supposing it 
might have been intentional. He rose to his feet with 
some rough words. But the student left instanter, with 
some recollection of an old ghost story. He did not 
return that night. 



EZRA MICHENKR, M. D. 23 

THE CLOSE OF LECTURES. 

The close of the lectures brings small relief to the 
graduating class up to their examination — a period of 
anxiety and suspense of uncertain duration. To sensi- 
tive minds success and failure is almost a question of 
life and death. 

I had seen much practice ; I had read of it, I had 
studied it ; be3 T ond this I had not found much leisure 
for reading. I confidently staked n^ success on practi- 
cal knowledge. This, I felt assured, would satisfy- 
some of the faculty ; of others I was less certain. The 
recent death of dear Prof. Wistar was cause of sorrow, 
and the pro tern, gave some anxiety. I had nothing to 
gain by subserviency, and determined to present a bold 
front. I knew that some had failed from subserviency 
alone by framing answers to please. I had read the 
language of the poet, and had drawn some inspiration 
from it. I had even read it to my classmates. 

' ' Then let the trial come 
And witness those, if terror be upon me, 
If I shrink, or falter in my strength 
When hardest it besets me. Do not think 
That I am feeble, or infirm of soul. ' ' 

It was a want of confidence in some of the Faculty 
which suggested this bravo, and not without cause. 

THE GREEN BOX. 

This consisted of a movable green baize screen, placed 
around a door, and a window, into which the candidate 
was introduced from without b} T the Dean, the other 
members of the Faculty not knowing who the candidate 
was. It contained an easy chair which, no doubt, 
sometimes needed the prefix un. 



24 AUTOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 

MY NOTICE. 

My family and friends were solicitous for me, and 
had kept strict watch for two weeks to know when I 
might be called. But the janitor handed me the notice 
on the street to meet the Faculty at n o'clock to-mor- 
row morning. I told no one. 

A SURPRISE. 

My excellent room-mate, a candidate for next year, 
was all sympathy for me, and, prospectively, for him- 
self. At 9 o'clock I took his arm, saying that we 
would go round and see what was being done at the 
college. As we entered the janitor's door who should 
we meet but Prof. Chapman, the Dean, coming down 
stairs. He seized my hand. "Mr. Michener, I am 
glad to see you. The candidate has not come, and 
the Faculty are waiting. Come right up stairs." This 
was as much a surprise to me as to my companion. I 
looked round and nodded a farewell. He, poor fellow, 
returned to his chamber and did not speak to any one 
till my return. It would, perhaps, have disconcerted 
me too, if Dr. Chapman had not commenced to assure 
me that I had nothing to fear, that the Faculty would 
deal fairly with me, etc., etc., in which I felt no confi- 
dence. But I was very soon in the green box. 

THE EXAMINATION. 

From the premature and irregular manner of my in- 
troduction it is not probable that my identity was known 
to any of the Faculty except the Dean. 



EZRA MICHENERf M. D. 25 

Dr. Physic led the way by a critical inquiry of the 
symptoms and treatment of concussion of the brain ; the 
symptoms and treatment of compression of the brain, 
and the distinction between them. 

The examination was close and critical, but it was 
practical and perfectly fair ; and, when done, he ex- 
pressed himself gratified with the result. This was 
encouraging. Dr. Physic had been the terror of the 
students. When he found a deficiency he was no 
doubt severe. I felt that I had gained some capital in 
his good opinion that might be found useful. 

Dr. James — -He asked me quite a number of plain, 
practical questions, such as adult students should 
understand. 

Dr. Dorse y — I regretted to have been deprived of 
the service of dear Dr. Wistar, on anatomy. But there 
was no appeal. The inquiries of Dr. Dorsey occasioned 
no difficulty. Perhaps he remembered that he was only 
a pro tern. 

While Dr. Dorsey was examining me on the blood- 
vessels, Dr. Physic asked leave to put one question to 
the candidate. " What is there peculiar to the longitu- 
dinal sinus of the brain ? ' ' This was rather calculated 
to cause embarrassment, but, happily, the answer was 
at hand, and he declared himself satisfied. 

Dr. Coxe came next, but I was mercifully spared all 
allusion to antediluvian chemistry. His questions were 
mostly well chosen, the last one excepted : The differ- 
ence between the ?iitrate of silver and lunar caustic? 
This quizz had two tails ; I chose the shortest one ; 
they were the same! He said "No! Lunar caustic 
was nitrate of silver, melted and cast i?ito sticks or cylin- 
ders." This was, indeed, a disti?ictio?i without a differ- 



26 AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTES. 

ence, as his own rectification acknowledged. Thus far 
I felt that I stood pretty fair with the work, but I knew 
where the tug would come from. 

Dr. Chapman — He called my attention to several 
diseases, their signs and treatment, more especially that 
protean and fatal disease — Cholera Infanhim. He called 
attention to some thirteen or more propositions, which 
he had enunciated for the treatment of it. I gave them 
in rotation, at least so far as I could, but added that 
I was sorry that he had acknowledged that they often 
failed to effect a cure. 

But the professor did not stop when he was do?ie. 
There had been contraiy teaching, and a coolness existed 
between Drs. Chapman and Dorse}- relating to certain 
morbid effects from the use of some of the preparations 
of mercury. He gave the question in its broad aspect. 
I gave him a cautious, but full answer, strictly according 
to his own teaching. l ' Yes, sir ; but is there not a dif- 
ferent doctrine taught in the school?" ''There is." 
" Then will you please to state what that doctrine is ? " 
4 ' No, / will not ; if Dr. Dorsey should ask the ques- 
tion, I may answer it." "Will }'ou please state what 
is your own opinion f" " I will not. I have seen the 
medium used ; I have used it, and have formed an 
opinion ; but this is not the proper place to express it." 
Dr. Physic earnestly protesting against such questions, 
and commending me for ?iot answering them. Rather 
hot work. 

Dr. Dorsey — After some proper questioning on the 
materia medica, relapsed, and asked precisely the three 
questions of Dr. Chapman, which I answered in the 
same manner, 011I3' giving his own teaching. My friend, 
Dr. Physic, again protesting. 



EZRA MICHENER, M. D. 27 

"Well, sir, you have sustained an excellent exami- 
nation, but will you please to answer one more question — 
What is the meaning of that hard word Apophligma- 
tizontes?" My answer was also in Greek — " Dr. 
Dorsey, I neither know or care its meaning. It does not 
belong to our literature." Dr. Physic again rebuked 
his nephew sharply. He then said, " No matter ; I did 
not expect the gentleman to answer it." 

THE FINALE. 

The Dean now led me out into the adjoining room, 
while the Faculty consulted, and the next minute re- 
turned and congratulated me, and introduced me to the 
Board. When the door was opened there stood Dr. 
Physic, with outstretched arms, to receive and con- 
gratulate me. I never knew how many black balls I 
received. My diploma is dated the 10th of the Fourth 
month, 1818. 



THE MAN— AT HOME. 

I had now returned home to my father's. I had pre- 
ferred to locate in my native place. There were already 
three doctors — Ross, Allison and Ankrim, all within 
two to three miles, none of whom could tolerate a rival. 
Dr. Ross was preparing to remove West, but he had 
chosen a scccessor in Dr. Chamberlain, and threw the 
entire weight of his influence into the scale against me. 

I had, in my brief experience, learned the necessity 
for self-reliance. I had learned the importance of a 
quiet, unobtrusive attention to my own business. I had 
learned, too, that it required two parties to get up a 



28 AUTOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 

fight. I announced n^self a candidate for the confi- 
dence and patronage of my friends and neighbors, and 
sat down to await results. 

The removal of Dr. Ross required that many families 
should choose a younger and a strange family physician. 
This was often, especially with women, a serious matter. 
A friend of Dr. Ross, in whose family he had given 
much attendance, called to see him, with this inquiry : 
' ' Doctor, we have now to choose a new family physician, 
and I have come to ask thy candid opinion who we had 
better employ ? M After a pause : " Well, William, you 
know that Dr. Michener is the youngest of them, and I 
hate him ; but, as you ask my candid opinion, I must 
say you had better choose him." About this time I 
was elected an honorary member of the Medical Society 
of Pennsylvania. 

AN AMBITIOUS SPIDER. 

This morning I found a field sparrow in the grass, 
unable to fly. On catching it I was surprised to find 
that during the night a wily spider had been employed 
winding its coils around the base of the tail and tips 
of the wings. So industrious had it been, so numerous 
were its gossamer coils, that they almost equalled a 
pack thread. The bird had released one wing, but its 
strength was not adequate to loose the other without 
the assistance of a kind sympathizer. It was not an 
accidental entanglement in a spider's web. The band 
consisted probably of hundreds of coils, compactly and 
artistically applied. The manner of the work afforded 
evidence of design on the part of the spider, but that 
design will remain a problem. 



EZRA MICHENKRT, M. D. 2Q 

THE GUARDIAN SOCIETY. 

Our auctions, indeed most public gatherings, had be- 
come so infested with liquor suttlers and drunkenness 
as to become public nuisances. The Guardian Society 
was formed to prevent such illegal sales. This was 
only a half temperance measure, but it obtained a 
violent opposition, and eventually affected its purpose. 
It elicited many curious and interesting incidents. 

Robert Graham, of New London, and Robert White, 
of the Manor, two most excellent men of their kind, 
with a sprinkling of their respective congregations, 
soon came to us. But the temperance field was too 
narrow for their broad philanthropy. Robert Graham 
very soon proposed to give Sio of our funds for the 
relief of sufferers in Savannah ; it w 7 ould be such an 
honor to the Society. But there was no money in the 
treasury. 

Israel Jackson, Robert Graham and myself were ap- 
pointed a business committee. I suggested, very inno- 
cently, that if we were expected to promote temperance 
in others, we must be so ourselves ; must begin at 
home ; must clear our own skirts ; cleanse our cup- 
boards and sideboards, and refuse to partake of liquors 
when offered, or to offer them to others. Israel Jackson 
accepted the idea at once, but I saw that Robert Graham 
was pinched. He said that he could pledge himself not 
to partake of them, but he could not bind himself not 
to give them to others. This was a paradox that re- 
quired an explanation. In his situation he had many 
calls from his people, and it had become an established 
custom to give them something to drink. If he should 
decline, his motive would be misunderstood, offense 



30 AUTOGRAPHIC AL NOTES. 

would be taken, and his influence would be lessened. 
The reply was : " If it is thought, among his people, 
necessary to make men drunkards in order to save their 
souls, the success of the means may well be questioned. ' ' 
But Robert Graham was a noble fellow, and only 
required a little time to throw off the shackles of a 
vicious custom, in order to see clearly, and accept the 
true temperance ide*a. 

PRIESTCRAFT. 

However protean the form may be, priestcraft is ever 
and always substantially the same. Robert White 
thought that while we were looking after the whiskey- 
boys, we might also look up the Sabbath-breakers. 
But some of us preferred to leave that service to those 
whose business it was more especially to use it. 

One day we found our meeting filled largely with 
strangers from the church named. Robert White offered 
a resolution affirming the ordination of a Christian 
Sabbath, and the duty of its observance. As chairman 
I replied that if such an institution had been so or- 
dained, we must all acknowledge the duty to observe it. 
But I had not been able to find any evidence of it in 
the Christian Scriptures. He was astonished to hear a 
gentleman of so much intelligence and learning say so, 
when there was such an abundance of it. Well, if so 
abundant, it will become found. What is it ? 

He then began a regular set-to, commencing with the 
seventh day of creation, and for some half hour des- 
canted learnedly on the Mosaic or Jewish Sabbath, 
without any prospect of his getting away from it. I 
stated that the Jewish Sabbath was a fixed fact ; there 
was no controversy about it ; but the resolution related 



EZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 31 

to a Christian ordinance. Would he please turn to that ? 
He did so, and exhausted his own and his hearers 
patience, if not his faith, in the vain search ; but he 
nowhere found the injunction, " to remember the Sab- 
bath day to keep it holy." — Ex. xx. 8. 

Robert Graham tried his prentice hand with no better 
success. Their failure was complete. They had prob- 
ably never before examined the subject for themselves, 
trusting to the conclusions of others, and did not know 
the feebleness of their cause. After a free and interest- 
ing discussion I stated that I was willing to go as far as 
the Apostle Paul : 

" Who art thou, that judgest the servant of another. 
* * One man esteem one day above another ; 
v ' another esteemeth every day alike ; let each man be 
" fully assured in his own mind." — Rom. xvi. 6. 

1 ' If you feel the obligation it is your duty to observe 
the day. If I do not feel the obligation, there is no 
adequate power on earth to require me to observe it. It 
is not a proper subject for either legal or moral 
restraint." 

The parting was rather cool, and it was the last we 
saw of our Presbyterian neighbors. It seems that a 
more serious ruse de guerre has been practiced in con- 
nection with the nomination of a temperance ticket 
recently in this State. See proceedings of County and 
State Proceedings. _ 

READING IN PUBLIC. 

To read well in public is a high attainment. With a 
view to this object we formed a class, to meet once a 
month, to read in public. Every one was allowed to 
attend on condition of reading the lesson given them 
and allowing a free criticism of the performance. The 



32 AUTOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 

plan proved to be both pleasant and instructive. A 
case : I. G. had a niece at school, whose teacher said it 
was useless for her to read the school lessons — she was 
perfect in reading. The uncle, somewhat doubting, 
when he heard of our class, put her on a horse and 
sent her up. An entire stranger, she took the book and 
read the lesson flippantly, just as fast as she could, 
imperfectly articulating the words. As a stranger she 
was allowed to pass, and reported ver}' satisfactory ; no 
fault found. lt Well, she was a stranger ; I will send her 
again." The reading was in the same style, but the 
criticism was damaging. The report was : ' ' They 
tore my reading all to pieces ; I did not know anything 
about reading." 

11 Well, I think that will do ; I will keep her to it." 
And he did so, till she became quite a good reader, and 
sincerely thanked us for the severe ordeal that she 
had passed through. 

A LITERARY CLUB. 

During the ensuing winter Israel and William Jack- 
son, Joseph J. Lewis and myself met once a week to 
read and discuss paper on literary and scientific sub- 
jects. Several series of essays were furnished for the 
Village Record, which excited much public interest. 



A CHANGE OF LIVING. 

A warm attachment existed mutually between Sarah, 
daughter of Samuel and Mary Spencer and myself, and 
we contemplated marrying whenever business prospects 
might justify such a procedure. It was not convenient 



KZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 33 

for me to stay much longer at my father's, and a home 
among strangers would cost about as much as keeping 
house in a small way. We were poor, but we believed 
that we could be happy, and by industry and economy 
we could build up the comforts of life around us, and 
enjoy them so much the more. Such was the conclusion 
reached, and my father became my bondsman for a lot 
of fourteen acres, with a small log-house, pre-occupied 
by legions of bugs and roaches. 

OUR MARRIAGE. 

We were married on the 15th of the Fourth month, 
181 9, and soon after occupied our new home as tenants 
in common. While w T e lacked some of the comforts and 
conveniences to which we had been accustomed, we 
escaped many of the vexations and toils of high life. 
We could realize the truth of the proverb, " Man needs 
but little here below, nor needs that little long." We 
were a happy pair. 

BOTANICAL BOOKS. 

I had attended Dr. Barton's botany class while in the 
city, but he had no book for the use of the beginners. 
He was then preparing, and has just published, his 
''Flora Philadelphicae," in two volumes, the first and 
only book I could obtain until Dr. Darlington published 
his unique little " Florula Cestrica/' in 1826. No 
wonder my progress in botany was slow. 

CIDER. 

Up to this period, and even later, fermented drinks, 
wine, beer, cider, had been relegated to an anomalous 
position, somewhere between drunkenness and sobriety. 



34 AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTES. 

The user was not accounted a drunkard, yet he was 
often drunk. 

My total abstinence pledge, nine years since, did not 
embrace cider, but led me to observe its effects. I 
observed that many farmers stored away quantities of 
cider for drink ; that farmers' winter-evening visits 
were more frequent than when it was less abundant, 
and I found that some serious quarrels between near 
neighbors had originated at those meetings. I could 
not fail to compare the effects of cider with those of 
whiskey, and draw my conclusions. I was ready on 
the first intimation to class them together. 

In the autumn my new home afforded a supply of 
cider. After culinary uses I had three and a half barrels 
left ; three were stored away for vinegar ; the half bar- 
rel was put in the cellar without any definite purpose, 
supposing it would do to use in some way ; but in the 
end I had three and a half barrels pf fine vinegar. This 
was my last storage of cider for drink. I may have 
occasion again and again to refer to the cider question. 

Our son Spencer was born 1820 — 2 — 25. He was one 
of those good children who, as the gossip has it, was 
too good to live. He was, indeed, remarkably quiet, 
gentle, mild-dispositioned and lovable. This was not 
a mere parental fancy. 

WHO MADE HIM A DRUNKARD? 

I have elsewhere spoken of my appetite for alcoholic 
drinks, and my resolve to refrain from their use. I now 
found myself placed in a new relation to them. There 
were few families where the article was not used, and 
Dr. Ross had trained his patrons to provide it for his 



KZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 35 

visits. It was even thought that a neglect to do so 
could be seen in his bills. Almost wherever I called 
the same courtesy was extended to me, and in some 
cases my refusal to partake was misunderstood, and 
offense taken. 

On the morning after the Quarterly meeting, in the 
Eighth month, I was called, a personal stranger, into 
the most worthy and respectable family of Samuel and 
Elizabeth Pennock, where I found several Friends who 
had been at meeting the da}^ before. The good mother, 
than w 7 hom there are few T better, asked her daughter 
Eliza to bring some wine. She came prepared to. serve 
the company. I was young, poor and dependent ; those 
present were wealthy and influential ; yet I felt that I 
had a duty to perform. The wine came to me first, as 
a stranger. I declined, saying coolly, that I seldom 
drank that kind of wine. The mother, not at once 
accepting my meaning, replied that the wine w r as good. 
I told her that I did not question the qualit}' of the 
wine, but I supposed that they had what was better for 
drink. She then relieved her daughter' s embarrassment 
by saying, - ' We have very good water, if that is w 7 hat 
thee means." The wine was substituted by a pitcher 
of water. This was my text for a temperance lecture. 
" My dear Friends, I did not come here to behave rudely, 
but this is to me a very serious matter. You have all 
known Dr. Ross ; you all know that he was intemperate 
— a drunkard ; and you all have, no doubt, censured 
him for it. But have you ever considered who it was 
who made Dr. Ross a drunkard ? 

* ' Now my appetite for drink is very strong- — perhaps 
equal to that of Dr. Ross ; and I have had the offer of 
drink three times since I left home, and may have three 
more before my return. L,et me ask, ' what would be 



36 AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTES. 

the consequence if I should accept it whenever offered ? ' 
The)' said with one voice I would soon become a drunk- 
ard. ' Then do please tell me who would have made 
me a drunkard ? ' I need not repeat the answer. 

" My Friends, here is my danger ; I feel it, and am 
averse to being made a drunkard, and need the aid and 
sympathy of nr\ T friends." This brought tears into the 
good mother's eyes, with an acknowledgment, in which 
the company joined, that she had never taken so serious 
a view of the subject before. 

After this event I had a very intimate social and pro- 
fessional connection with the family for man}^ } r ears, 
but it was the last wine I ever saw in the house. The 
report of this temperance lecture reached other house- 
holds, where it produced fruit, and I felt arnpl}- re- 
warded for the unpleasant service. 

Our son Ellwood was bom 25th of Second month, 
1821. 

About this time I was appointed the assistant clerk 
of New Garden Monthly Meeting ; William Jackson, 
Jr., the clerk. 

We w T ere now called to the painful realization of the 
gossip alluded to in the loss of our dear Spencer, who 
died the 31st of the Eighth month, 1822, of an abberant 
form of d} T sentery, which, from later experience, seems 
not to have been comprehended properly by the pro- 
fession. 

Our son Jenner was born 6th of Eleventh month, 1822. 

FRACTURE APPARATUS. 

It was during this year that I constructed the appa- 
ratus for fracture of the os femoris, which proved 
satisfactoty for more than sixty years. 



EZRA MICHEXER, M. D. 37 

We were again called, unexpectedly, to mourn the 
loss of our dear little Jenner, who died rather suddenly 
on the first da}' of the year. This severe affliction 
seemed, in the end, ominous of a season of extreme suf- 
fering. 

Our son Spencer, 2nd, was born 14th of Eighth 
month, 1824. 

DYSENTERY. 

The summer of 1S24 was rendered memorable by a 
severe epidemic of dysentery. It commenced at early 
harvest in the western border of Kennett and in New 
Garden, and extended rapidly across London Grove and 
Franklin Townships. It was originally confined to a 
belt of two miles wide ; but later some extralimital 
cases occurred. It was more general, and as might be 
expected, was most fatal in Xew Garden. While quite 
severe in the valley, it never ascended Toughkenamon 
hill. More than sixty interments were made at Xew 
Garden within sixty days. It was estimated that 
one hundred and twenty deaths resulted from it. My 
own dear mother, after having nursed some nine or ten 
grandchildren, became exhausted and fell a victim to 
the merciless disease. 

It was thought that the pestiferous line could be 
faintly traced from the Delaware to the Susquehanna. 
In my circle the mortality was principally among 
children, but in the practice of Dr. Chamberlain many 
adults fell victims to it. The disease was undoubtedly 
more virulent in Xew Garden. 



38 AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTES. 

A NERVOUS SHOCK. 

Five children had been seriously ill in a large 
family of very worthy character and plain habits, but 
with little knowledge of themselves or of the world. 
This was specially true of an older brother. This morn- 
ing one of the children died, the first death that he had 
ever witnessed. It was a very hot day in the Eighth 
month, when I found him walking about in a full 
winter suit, well buttoned up, and withal cold. He 
assured me that he was taking the disease, and would die 
too. It was a severe nervous shock. 

To turn his attention into a different channel without 
seeming to doubt his words, I handed him a heavy 
dose of calomel and jalap. "What was it?" I told 
him. He said the calomel was made of dead men's 
bones, but what was the jalap? A more intelligent 
brother then interfered, but he smelled the medicine ; 
he never could take that, it smelled just like the 
disease. 

He had a large fire made on the kitchen hearth and 
laid down on the floor. Eater, a friend prevailed on 
him to take the dose, and go to his bed ; but he soon 
returned to the kitchen floor. That "doctor stuff" 
had poisoned him, and he rolled over the floor under 
the impression that he was dying. He even had the 
family called, bade them all farewell, and as a dying 
request, begged them never to take any ' ' doctor stuff. ' " 
The reader can imagine the further details. I found him 
the next morning free from disease and well. The 
remedy had been well chosen. 

Now this is not given as merely laughable, but as a 
serious fact. Men of stronger intellect may be sud- 
denly affected in the same manner. 



EZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 39 

A DISCOVERY. 

In common with others I [had been grieved and 
perplexed at our want of success in the treatment of 
small children. They generally died, after a short ill- 
ness, with symptoms of cerebral excitement and white 
evacuants. While even the lancet was available with 
adults, it was often doubtful whether the exhaustive 
treatment of those little innocents did not increase 
rather than diminish the trouble. It was a vague idea. 
Can this difficulty proceed from exhaustion ? But I 
resolved to test a reverse procedure. 

I asked Dr. Aukrim, one evening, to see a little 
fellow who appeared to be sinking rapidly, and to give 
me his opinion. "Well, he will probably die to-mor- 
morrow, just as others have done." I showed him the 
prescription that I had prepared for him. "If you 
give him that, I will see your patient in the morning. " 
It consisted of Huxham's tincture, paregoric and spirits 
of nitre. 

In the morning": He had slept, the- brain was appa- 
rently relieved, the bowels mostty quiet, and he 
speedily recovered. Other cases proved equally propi- 
tious. Where I had lost fourteen out of seventeen, I 
was soon able to reverse the proportions. I had crossed 
the Rubicon. But I had done more. I had fairly 
anticipated the great discovery which has immortalized 
the names of Drs. Abercrombie, Hall and Goosh, at 
least a dozen years later, of the frequent occurrence of 
spurious hydrocephalus. Unfortunately I neglected to 
publish my discovery, and lost the credit of it. 



40 AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTES. 

THE PERPLEXITY OF SLAVERY. 

It appears that in the palmier days of slavery, a man 
named Stephens died in Cecil Count}', Md., possessed 
of Jarvis and Mary, and four sons, Duke, Moses, 
Stephens and Richard. Mary R. Sappington took 
Jarvis and Mary, and Jacob Stephens took the boys as 
part of their inheritance professedly, to prevent their 
being sold to slave dealers. 

The good Mary R. Sappington, for such I esteemed 
her, was soon left a widow, and poor, } r et could not 
consent to sell her faithful slaves, for whom she had no 
further use. They were at length permitted to go 
away and came to West Grove, where they lived 
several years, and became favorites for honesty and 
industty. They were finally arrested and consigned to 
slavery again. They were lodged in Elkton jail, on the 
plea of safe keeping — perhaps to await a slave dealer, 
the claimant payiiig the board. Mahlon Preston and 
myself visited Elkton, obtained counsel, and had them 
attached as kidnapped persons. This prevented their 
removing them. So well were they known and 
esteemed that the jailor gave them the freedom of the 
town, only to return at night. Once he gave them 
three days to visit their friends at West Grove. 

Tired of paying jail charges, the pair were again 
released and returned to West Grove, where they 
obtained free tickets to parts unknown. 

Some months later, as I sat on my porch on a First- 
day afternoon, I noticed four men crossing the fields in 
a direct line from Elkton to my house. I at once 
thought of Jarvis' boys. They were coarse clad, but 
noble looking fellows. One of them inquired for Dr. 



EZRA MICHEXER, M. D. 41 

Michener, and when he was assured of his man, he 
said : " We are Jarvis' boys." They were plentifully 
fed, their knapsacks well filled, and their pockets re- 
plenished with a little of the needful. Then the shrill 
whistle of the under-ground railroad rang out its 
mysterious notes to the simple tune : 

u Lead us from this evil land, 
From the spoiler set us free ; 
And once more our gathered band, 
Heart to heart, shall worship thee." 

And they were gone to pay their respects to Queen 
Victoria. 

I had sent an anonymous letter to Jacob Stephens, but 
the answer was very long delayed. It was as follows : 

Wabwick, Cecil County, Md., Feb. 23, 1824. 

3Iy Unknown Friend : 

Your letter did not reach me until this day. (??) I now return 
you an answer. A manumission can be obtained by your coming 
forward and paying me a reasonable price for Jarvis and Mary 
and all their children. I consider them very ungrateful for their 
conduct. (He then repeats the history as above.) 

They have all left me. When I took them they were not able 
to work, except Duke. And I myself have worked harder to 
raise them boys than ever they worked for me. I have been 
offered five hundred dollars apiece for them boys. I would not 
sell them because it (lid not agree with my feelings to sell them 
like horses. I would not take a thousand dollars for the smallest 
one I have, needy as I am for the sake of money. 

Xow, my friend, if you or any of the Friends will come to me 
and pay me a reasonable price for them, I shall think you are 
doing justice to them and to me too, and then I will manumit 
them all ; otherwise I will pursue them until the day of my death 
but what I will have them. You or any friend coming to see me 
on that business, shall be treated with respect. 

Respectfully yours, 

Jacob Stephens. 



42 ATJTOGRAPHICAI, NOTES. 

This interesting narrative reflects both the evil and 
the good of slave-holding. They had been trained to 
slavery, perhaps in its mildest form. We see it did 
not eradicate all the better feelings of their nature. It 
may be well for us to consider : ' ' Can the Ethiopian 
change his skin ; or the leopard his spots ? Then 
may you also do good, that are taught to do evil.'' 
(Jer. 13-23.) Had we been trained as they were we 
would probably have been slave-holders like them. 



FREE LABOR GOODS. 

Many persons having become dissatisfied with the 
use of the products of slave labor, an association was 
formed in Philadelphia and elsewhere for mutual aid in 
procuring free goods. 

We purchased free goods in quantity and distributed 
them to agents. On one occasion we purchased several 
bales of cotton and had it manufactured to order. 

Our son Eea was born the 6th of Second month, 1826. 



HOME-GROWN COTTON. 

This season I planted a small garden plot with 
cotton and succeeded bravely. The bolls were large, 
and well filled with an excellent fibre. I deteriorated 
the crop by mixing the late picking after frost. My 
gin was improvised of two rollers an inch thick and 
ten inches long of hard wood and connected with cog 
wheels, the lower one turned by a crank. It was 
surprising how completely and rapidly it did the 



EZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 43 

work. The cotton was spun at the Jackson Mill 
and wove in the neighborhood, making seventeen 
yards. 

CHESTER COUNTY CABINET. 

Under the leadership of Dr. Wm. Darlington, a 
friend of the natural sciences, w T as organized the Chester 
County Cabinet. The object was two-fold ; first, to 
form a collection of the natural productions of the 
County; and second, to gather materials for its pros- 
pective history. The workers were few and the 
progress slow, until the whole was gulped up by 
another Jonah whale — the West Chester Normal School. 

FEORUEA CESTRICA. 

Dr. Darlington being engaged preparing his little 
work, the Florula Cestrica, requiring original research, 
requested my assistance in the w T ork. This gave a 
fresh impulse to my botanical enthusiasm. The book 
was soon finished and proved to be a rich boon to 
Chester County botanists, the second w T ork I obtained 
on that subject. 

THE BOTANIC AE PRESS. 

Many methods had been tried for pressing plants 
w T hile drying for the Herbarium, but the screw did 
not answ r er, and the application of weights was incon- 
venient and uncertain. It wanted a constant pressure 
during shrinkage, and one that could be varied at 
pleasure to suit the condition of the plants. 



44 



AUTOGRAPHICAI, KOTES. 




LX 



The Construction. — Take two pieces of 3-inch stuff, 
one iS inches, the other 2 feet long, and tenant them to- 
gether, as seen at A, B, C. It is convenient to give it 
feet at the ends A, B, C. Cut the floor-board of any 
convenient size, say 15 by 20 inches, and attach it to 
the tripod. Cut the upper or press-board of the same 
size. Prepare two cleats, E, three inches high at the 
middle, with bearings at the summit for a roller ; 
attach them along the upper edges of the board. Have 
roller turned of strong wood, 18 inches long and not 
less than 3 inches thick, with two bearings cut down to 
one inch to correspond with the cleats. Bore several 
holes near the middle of the roller for the reception of a 
notched lever and sliding weight. Take two straps of 
light harness leather an inch wide and 12 inches long, 
attach one end of them at A and B, the other ends to 
the outer ends of the roller at F and G, and the press is 
complete. It will press one plant or a hundred with the 
same force. 



EZRA MICHENER, M. D. 



45 



RELIGIOUS SERVICES. 

The obligation to duly attend religious meeting is a 
permanent duty, and is paramount to the ordinal busi- 
ness concerns of life. My record will, I think, show a 
busy life, though unfortunately not equally useful ; yet 



The records of Society will show somewhat of its claims upon 
my time and attention : thus, from 1821 to 1868 I had occupied 
the clerk's table in the several meetings for forty-eight years, 
including the revolutionary period of 1827. 

It may be mentioned as a remarkable coincidence that my wife, 
Mary S., has served in like manner forty-one years, and my chil- 
dren, Ellwood, Lea and Phebe, have done similar service. Mary, 
being often absent as a teacher, escaped. Up to this writing the- 
record is as follows, commencing 18*21 : 





Peep. 


Mo. 


Qr. Y. M. 1 Total. 


E. Michener 


10 


28 


10 48 years. 


M. S. Michener 




11 


25 5 


41 " 


Ellwood Michener 


4 


8 


15 




27* " 


Lea Michener 


7 








7 " 


Phebe Webster 


18 


2 






20 " 



For the Family, 143 years. 
SYLVANIA, First of First Month, 1885. 

X. B. — Ellwood and Phebe are still in the service. 



*Add 5 to 7 years in Meetings of Concord Quarter. 



EECAPITUL A.TIOX. 


PPvEP. Monthly Quarterly. 
Mg. Asst. Clk. Asst. Clk. 


Yearly. 
Asst. Clk. 


E. Michener 
M. S. Michener 
Ellwood Michenerf 
Lea Michener 
Phebe Webster* 


10 

4 

7 
18 


7 

1 

till 
2 


21 
11 

7 
death 


8 
8 


10 
17 

7 


5 




48 yrs. 
41 u 
27 " 
7 " 
20 " 




143 " 



fTo which add for Ellwood, from 5 to 7 years, within Concord Quarterly. 



*Still under appointment First of First Month, 1885. 



46 AlTTOGRAPHICAIv NOTES. 

my engagements did not ordinarily prevent my attend- 
ance of meetings, except those of a professional char- 
acter which generally claimed the priorit}^. Indeed, on 
one occasion (1824), I was not inside of a house of wor- 
ship for three months. 

Our daughter Maty was born 1st of Third month, 
1828. 

A HOME. 

Nine years of frugal management had so far improved 
our circumstances as to justify and require better ac- 
commodations for the family, either by building or 
removal. The latter expedient was furnished in the 
autumn of this year by Dr. Chamberlain proposing to 
quit practice and offering his propert5 r in New Garden 
for sale. The terms were soon fixed, but possession 
could not be obtained until the Fourth month ensuing. 
In 1 83 1, I wrote my essa}^ on " Religious Society." 
Our daughter Phebe was born 22d of Twelfth month, 
1831. 

MY REMOVAL. 

On my removal, in the Spring of 1829, to New 
Garden, I generally met a friendly welcome. 

REMINISCENCES. 

The summer of 1832 was rendered memorable by the 
prevalence of that terrible disease, Cholera. On the first 
report of it in Philadelphia, I visited the city in order to 
see the disease for myself and to learn something in re- 
lation to it. I did not do either, Dr. , who had 



EZRA MICHENER, M. D. 47 

just returned from Montreal, answered my inquiry 
thus: "My dear fellow, I have no information to 
give." 

Wilson Walker and wife came from Philadelphia to 
his father's at the old Mermaid Tavern, just over the 
Delaware line. She was attacked that night ; a sister, 
I think, the next night, and a wash-wonian two days 
later. None of them survived more than ten hours. 
They w r ere attended by Drs. M and C — . 

A few days later I w T as called to see James Walker 
of New Garden, my first experience. He was attacked 
at four ; I saw him at eight ; he died at twelve. Drs. 

M and C called during the forenoon and 

staid until he died. They had seen Alexander Mc- 
Dowell at the Mermaid, where most of the family w T ere 
sick. They prescribed for James Dixon and for S. 
Walker and wife and two boarders on their way up. 
Four of these were Cholera cases. Later in the day 
Dr. Murphy and I called on S. Walker's, thence to 
James Dixon's, where we staid out of a shower long 
enough to see him die. At the Mermaid, Alex. Mc- 
Dowell had been dead an hour. He lay as he had 
died, no one to go near him but his infirm father, eighty 
years old. I had never shrunk from dangers belonging 
to my profession, and while w 7 aiting the return of Dr. 

C , I threw off niy coat and w T ith the help of the 

aged father, soon placed the corpse in the best condition 
the circumstances would allow. This was my first day 
among the Cholera ; three deaths in six hours, w T ith 
eleven more sick, mostly with the same disease. 

Two days later we were called to another case and 
left the patient in the evening expecting he might not 
live until our morning call ; instead, we found him in 



48 AUTOGRAPHIC AI, NOTES. 

violent delirium, the skin hot and dry, face flushed, 
eyes red and water}', breathing short and hurried, pulse 
full and up to eighty. It was a change of which we 
had never heard. The question was asked, "What 
shall we do ? " My answer was, Goby the symptoms, 

subdue this violent action. Drs. M and F 

said we have had a collapse and must use stimulants. 
I washed my hands of all responsibility while they 
drenched him with brand}'. He was rapidly ex- 
hausted by the violent action and died three or four 
hours after. There were five deaths at the Mermaid 

and three outside. It was curious that Drs. M , 

C and F were all strong contagionists, 

and after two or three days exposure, sickened, as they 
fancied, with Cholera, and left the field to me alone. 

It is worth}' of note that while the people were shut 
up in their own houses through fear, Joseph and Lydia 
Way, like good Samaritans, opened their house for the 
physicians in attendance ; to call at all hours either for 
rest or refreshment for themselves or their horses. 



" NATURAL HISTORY. 

I had made a pretty general collection of the botani- 
cal productions of the County and wished to try 
my hand at Zoology. I found books treating of this 
subject about as scarce as they had been on Botany ; 
but about this time I made the acquaintance of the late 
John K. Townsend of Philadelphia. He was a correct 
ornithologist, an expert taxidermist, and a good shot. 
His leisure and inclination led him often to my place, 
where he spent days and even weeks at a time ; indeed 



EZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 49 

after his return, the larger part of the narrative of his 
journey to the Columbia River and Sandwich Islands 
was written in my studio. 

In this year I visited Brigantine Beach, the noted re- 
sort for shore birds during the breeding season, in com- 
pany with two or three others. In three or four days 
I obtained seventy birds and five hundred eggs. 

In 1838, I furnished a room for lectures and a 
lyceum, giving a course of lectures more especially 
treating of Anatoiny, Physiology and diseases peculiar 
to the female sex. The class was composed of forty- 
five women, married and single, and was, so far as I 
know, the first of its kind. It was greatly appreciated 
by the audience and is still notably spoken of. 

The winter lyceum was attended by near fifty mem- 
bers. I gave instruction in experimental Philosophy 
at each meeting, and many interesting papers and dis- 
cussions w 7 ere produced. 

In 1839, eighth of First month, occurred the death of 
our dear son Spencer, in his fifteenth } 7 ear. He w T as a 
lad of much promise and was greatly lamented by his 
associates. 

My friend J T had recently buried his 

wife, followed by a son and two lovely daughters just 
blooming into man and womanhood, and now hearing 
that another son was dying in Cincinnati, he asked me 
to bear him company in making this son a visit. 

As the great railroads w r ere not then made and the 
vexatious modes of travel only forty-eight years ago 
having passed into history, a note of them may be 
worth preserving. % 

Fourth month 22d, at ten o'clock A. M., we took car 
at Parksburg for Harrisburg, thence by canal to 



50 AUTOGRAPHICAIv NOTES. 

Hollidaysburg, by Portage Railroad to Johnstown, by 
canal to Pittsburg, where we arrived at nine P. M. of 
the 25th in three days and eleven hours. 

Fourth month 26th, at an early hour all the down- 
river boats had steam up and were hurrying passengers 
and freight on board for an early passage. These once 
secured the fires were extinguished, to be repeated per- 
haps the next day. One boat, the Wm. Penn, did show 
signs of starting and we went on board at ten o'clock. 
Stopped at Wellsville for wood ; reached Wheeling at 
nine P. M. ; stopped all night for morning freight. 
Fourth month 27th, left at 9.30 A. M. Stopped for 
wood at Manningsville ; at noon our pumps gave out ; 
ran aground in the night ; reached Marietta at 7.30 
P. M. Fourth month 28th, wooded at Wyandot at 9 
A. M. ; at noon stopped at ; at 1.30 at Ports- 
mouth ; at six P. M. reached Concord, Ky. ; at eight 
stopped at Marysville, and at four A. M., Fourth 
month 29th, arrived at the city of the West, just one 
week from our home to our destination. 

The young man on w T hose behalf we had taken the 
journey, had died nearly a week before and the body 
lay in a dead-house in the grave-yard awaiting the 
arrival of some member of the family. We buried it 
next da} 7 - and with a heavy heart the father returned to 
his home. 

In 1840 I was elected a correspondent of the Academy 
of Natural Sciences — an outgrowth of the little Cabinet 
of Science of 18 15. 

I had for several months suffered pain in the right 
hip joint, which gradually increased until I became 
satisfied of its serious character and decided that the 
time had fully come for treatment. After riding all 



EZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 51 

day and taking leave of a number of patients, I went to 
bed for an uncertain period. I pursued a very severe 
local treatment ; a blister every three or four days, 
using mercurial ointment and iodine, (the iodide of 
mercury) for a dressing. This was rigidly used for 
six weeks while lying in bed. I then got up but did 
not attempt to walk without, crutches for six months 
after. It is now more than forty years and there has 
not been any return of the disease ; the treatment was a 
success. When my age, forty-seven years, and the 
length of time the trouble had been progressing are con- 
sidered, the prospect of success was by no means flatter- 
ing. The treatment may have been unique, it cer- 
tainly was severe, and to this or to both combined I 
attribute my recovery. 

The autumn of 1842 and the following winter were 
quite sickly and a number of deaths occurred in the 
country around. My dear wife was among the victims. 
She died the 21st of First month, 1843. So many have 
failed to describe the privation and loss of the wife and 
mother that I need not attempt it. 

Scarcely had the remains of my dear companion 
found a resting place, when I was prostrated with the 
same disease. For three weeks my case caused my 
kind friend, Dr. Pennock, much anxiety. When I had 
been ill about ten days I suffered so much from a feel- 
ing of weight and oppression during the night that I 
requested the Doctor next morning to bleed me ; but 
he hesitated. The same feelings returned the following 
night and I decided to bleed myself, my attendants 
holding me up the while. I took from twelve to fifteen 
ounces, with decided relief to the lungs and heart. 

Convalescence came slowly, and the weather being 



52 AUTOGRAPHIC AI, NOTES. 

rough I staid long in my room. During that deten- 
tion I re-arranged and indexed a herbarium of more 
than a thousand species of plants. When at length I 
was able to ride out and even visit patients, it was a 
long time before I could get into my carriage from 
the level ground. 

During the summer I took a trip into New Jersey in 
company with my son Ellwood, Jeremiah Starr and 
Jacob Heald. I collected many plants of Jersey ex- 
traction and a fine suit of marl fossils. My health was 
very much improved and we had the opportunity, 
going and returning, to see the destruction caused by 
the great Delaware County flood a few days before. 

While absent from home and sojourning with kind 
and sympathizing friends, the burden of loneliness was 
in a measure lifted off my spirit only to press more 
heavily on my return. 

While I cordially approve of the advices of our ex- 
cellent discipline on the subject of marriage, I had 
often said that we naturally most desire to repair the loss 
which we feel to be the greatest. This perhaps applies 
to other objects as a general principle, but is especially 
applicable to the loss of a congenial and loving hus- 
band or wife. Believing so, I early sought in this way 
to promote my own comfort and that of my family. 

It was a surprise to some of my friends when I thus 
early requested a certificate of the monthly meeting in 
order for marriage with Mary S. Walton of L,ondon 
Grove. We were married on the 9th of the Fifth month, 
1844, with the approbation of our friends. 

A short time sufficed to make the necessary arrange- 
ments for Mary's removal to the new home, and the 
assumption of new and more responsible duties which 



EZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 53 

she has been enabled to perform to the satisfaction of 
all concerned. 

On the 20th inst. we started on a visit to our 
brother, Isaac Walton and family, New York ; to 
Niagara and to our brother, Charles Waterman and 
family, near Mt. Pleasant, Ohio. 

We arrived at I. Walton's late in the day and just as 
a nice wedding party were sitting down to marry 
themselves by Friends' ceremony. The proceedings 
were suspended and we were given just ten minutes to 
adjust our toilets for the guest chamber. The parties 
were Solomon Jenner, a widower, and Margaret 
Webster, a widow. We made our entre as best we 
might in due season and the knot was soon tied. At 
the table Mary and I were requested to act as brides- 
maid and groomsman. The company soon left, and 
after an evening's chat the two brides modestly with- 
drew to their respective chambers ; but by a singular 
error loci, I w 7 as inducted into Margaret's room — 
brother Isaac being my guide — while Solomon w T as in 
due time to go to Mary's apartment. It was an amus- 
ing incident, though a little hard to work out, and caused 
a hearty laugh. 

On the 24th we w r ent to Troy ; next day to 
Schenectady, and at nine o'clock left on the canal boat 
for the West. 

Between Utica and Syracuse, a gentleman w r ho had 
proved himself an agreeable traveling companion, 
inquired the belief of Elias Hicks in respect to the atone- 
ment. I told him I was not an expounder of E. Hicks' 
views, but would answer any direct questions as well as 
I could. His first query was : ' ' Does he believe in 
the atonement ? " I replied yes, but possibly not as 



54 AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTKS. 

thee does ; let me ask if thee believes in the personal 
suffering, the carnal bloodshed and the death of Jesus 
on the cross as an atonement for the sins of all man- 
kind ? God's plan for the redemption of sinners? 
That was his belief, certainly. I replied that according 
to my thought E. Hicks did not believe just that way. 
If he did, / do not. My companion looked surprised. 
I then asked, was the crucifixion of Jesus a good or 
wicked act? " Very wicked," he replied. Were those 
who crucified him good or wicked men ? Again he 
answered, " Very wicked. " Then it follows that the 
plan of salvation embraces wicked men and wicked 
actions. Now tell me seriously if there had not been 
found men bad enough to do that wicked act, would 
the plan of God's salvation have failed for want of evil 
men? After remaining silent for a moment, he said, 
' * That is a new idea ; I must take time to think about 
it." 

On our homeward journey, after leaving Pittsburg, we 
were favored with the company of a gentleman from 
Mobile, his wife, her sister, two children and their 
nurse, a slave. The boat was crowded. At dinner, I 
seated Mary and was about to take my seat beside her, 
when the Mobelian told his wife to sit there, observing 
that she wished to sit opposite her sister, and at the 
same time making arrangements to take the next seat. 
I quietly moved over to the next seat myself, thus 
separating him from his wife as he had separated me 
from mine. It was afterward discovered that the sister 
was deaf and dumb ; but he had not the courtesy to say 
so at the time. At night the Captain put up an extra 
curtain, giving this family a private room of six berths 
and twice as much cabin room as they could occupy, while 



EZRA MICHENKR, M. D. 55 

the men had not room even to lie on the floor. After 
crossing the mountains they claimed the same privilege, 
but the Captain not being a slaveocrat, refused, saying 
the women must go to their own apartment. They 
persisted and demurred until the men had filled the 
berths and the floor too. It was not until positively com- 
manded to do so that they obeyed, and disposed of them- 
selves as they best could, by which time there was no 
room for intruders — nor pity either. It was a law of 
the line that passengers should have choice of berths in 
the order of their entrance, but this rule had not been 
observed in the women's cabin. The Captain said that 
if the ladies required it the women would all have to 
get up and allow them to exercise their equal choice. 
When he was about to read the ' ' riot act ' ' in the cabin 
the ladies began to feel their true position and order 
was restored. 

On our return from Ohio, Mary's sister, Rebecca 
Waterman, accompanied us to visit the friends and 
scenes of early life from which she had long been 
separated. 

In 1846, second of Ninth month, in company with 
Wm. E. Bailey and several other friends, I left home for 
Baltimore, thence to Norfolk and so by James River 
to Petersburg, Richmond, etc. 

At Norfolk we were transferred to the Curtis Packet 
for Richmond. Soon after passing the desolate site of 
old Jamestown, we were called aft to partake of Virginia 
hospitality in the form of lunch, which was tastefully 
served up on old boxes, barrels and a pile of wood, and 
consisted of stale bread and cold ham. It was placed 
here contiguous to the bar, no doubt for the bar's sake ; 
the cold water was quite at the other end of the boat. 



56 AUTOGRAPHICAIv NOTES. 

My main object in this journey was to become ac- 
quainted with slavery and slave-holders, and one of the 
passengers, a resident of Norfolk, soon attracted my at- 
tention and I sought an acquaintance. 

An opportunity soon offered as together we viewed 
the ruins of Jamestown. I queried why it had lain so 
long in a comparatively desolate condition and asked 
if slavery had anything to do with it. He made a 
courteous and careful reply ; indeed his whole manner 
bespoke an able and willing advocate of slavery, and 
my further experience enables me to add that he was as 
willing to hear as to be heard. 

I told him that my education was opposed to slavey, 
my observations and reflections condemned it as sinful 
and my religious convictions, so far as I had any, pro- 
hibited it. He took the position that it was instituted 
by Providence for wise and beneficent purposes, that it 
had been and would continue to be a great blessing to 
this country and to Africa. Here was a wide difference 
to be reconciled. It was to him a one-sided question ; 
he had never looked into the other scale, yet he mani- 
fested the utmost urbanity throughout. On several 
occasions when he felt that he was fairly met, he would 
say, "Well, you have the best of the argument," and 
would abandon that point only to raise another. On 
one occasion he said, " Well, gentlemen, the best argu- 
ment I ever heard in support of slavery was that of 
Mr. McDuffy ; he said that it was a wise ordination of 
Providence to place the most docile people in the servile 
class, to be hewers of wood and drawers of water. ' ' I 
replied that was no argument at all ; that I did not 
believe the assertion that Providence ever ordained such 
a thing. " Well," he said, " it is not an argument." 



EZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 57 

I gave him a slap on the shoulder, saying, it is ac- 
knowledging a good deal for an advocate of slavery to 
admit that to be the best argument he ever heard, for it 
was no argument at all. This was received courteously. 
To various charges he w r ould admit that there were 
objections to the system of slavery, while there could be 
none to our system. When reminded of the deteriora- 
tion of his native State, the impolicy of slavery, he said, 
"I will not attempt to argue that." 

At City Point the novelty train was waiting to carry 
us to Petersburg. When drawing up it looked the pro- 
genitor of all railroads. The road was rickety, the 
engine was rickety, the car was rickety and the 
engineer was rickety — an old man who had no doubt 
been a slave for seventy years and who served as engi- 
neer, conductor and sole manager. With this outfit we 
were only one hour in running the whole distance of 
twelve miles, notwithstanding the driver had to stop 
and pull down bars whenever they chanced to be up, 
for in those days the herders used poles to prevent their 
stock trespassing. 

Arriving at our destination, we left our baggage at 
the Bollingbrook Hotel and went out for a stroll. At 
eventide we returned and sat down in the well-filled 
bar-room to observe men and manners. Ourselves 
being " the observed of all observers." Very soon our 
friend from Norfolk came in. He gave us a hearty re- 
cognition, introduced us to a number of his friends and 
sat down. He at once renewed the discussion of the 
morning which was continued to a late hour. We 
found ourselves in the bar-room of a leading hotel, 
right in the focus of Virginia slavery, publicly discuss- 
ing the question with more than twenty eager listeners 



58 AUTOGRAPHIC AI< NOTES. 

standing around us for more than an hour without the 
least evidence of undue excitement. 

On the morrow our friend would not leave until 
he had found all of our party, given us a hearty shake 
of the hand and a cordial invitation to return by way of 
Norfolk and spend a few days with him. 

We were next introduced to our excellent friend Dr. 

, who was keenly alive to the amelioration of 

the evils of slavery and its accomplishment by the 
introduction of Northern farmers and farm methods ; 
but he could not extricate himself from its toils. We 
rode together in his carriage for the greater part of two 
days. He had seventeen slaves on two hundred acres of 
land, besides several sons and daughters. He did not 
excuse the sale of human chattels, but asked how it 
was possible for him to avoid it. Farms for sale were 
abundant and seemed cheap at five and seven dollars 
per acre ; but, I said, if we come here we shall expect 
to do our own farm work. Our wives and daughters 
would carry the garden and farm products to market ; 
would you meet us on equal ground ? Would your 
wives and daughters recognize ours in the markets and 
elsewhere? He promptly replied, "The}' ought to do 
so." Yes, but would they do it ? We cannot bring 
our families here and degrade them to a level with your 
laboring class. He said he had often advised his sons 
to choose Northern women for wives. I asked him if 
I could advise my sons to choose Southern women for 
wives ; would the plan work equally well both ways ? 
I had alluded to the general demoralization of masters 
and slaves, when he turned to me with tears trickling 
down his cheeks and said: "Dr. Michettar, the re- 
sponsibility which I feel for my slaves is too heavy for 



EZRA MICHENER, M. D. 59 

any human being to bear ; yet I am glad it is so, and I 
would not lift a straw of the burden if I might. Every 
wrong requires suffering for its amendment and slavery 
is not an exception." 

After my return we carried on a lengthy and earnest 
correspondence bearing upon the great question until, 
I think, the time of his death. The Petersburg Intelli- 
gencer, dated September 24th, 1846, during our visit, 
made this declaration. "A Quaker farmer and a 
thrifty industrious man have become almost synony- 
mous. Neatness, sobriety, industry and thrift seem to 
follow the Friends wherever they go, and we know of 
no people who could do more for this part of Virginia." 

At Petersburg I obtained a portfolio and papers which 
I soon found use for, but the collecting and drying of 
plants under proper pressure while travelling is a little 
troublesome. My plan was, at bed time, to change them 
into dr}^ papers, strew the damp ones about the room 
to dry and then slip the portfolio between the sacking 
and bed just under my more weighty bed-fellow, Wm. 
E. Bailey, a pretty good improvised botanical press. 
From the Doctor's farm I collected and sent home 
many fine marl fossils. At the Appomattox bridge we 
saw the celebrated Pocahontas Wash-bowl, a large 
stone made concave probably by the action of the water 
in the manner of what are called pot-holes, common 
where a strong current flows over a soft rocky bed as 
we see at Richmond. 

Bidding farewell to our kind friends, we took passage 
in a shanty train for Richmond, a distance of twenty- 
one miles. In that short distance the iron horse kicked 
loose three times and ran off, leaving us standing on the 
track. The last time it left us on the high and 



60 AUTOGRAPHICAIv NOTES. 

splendid bridge over the James River, affording us a 
most delightful view of that noble stream and of the 
city of seven hills. 

We put up at the Powhattan House, to which I had 
been recommended by a young man who gave us an 
introduction to the kind and courteous proprietor. 

On the 26th of Ninth month we visited Asa Janney, 
where he is employed as head miller at a salary of 
one thousand dollars. The mill is eight stories high on 
one side and runs twenty-four pairs of seven feet 
burrs with a capacity of 2500 bushels of wheat in twenty- 
four hours, and has reached 125,000 barrels of flour in 
a year. It is driven by three over- shot wheels, 32 feet 
high and 13 feet wide. It stands directly across the 
James River canal, the water of which falls over the 
wheels 80 feet to the tide water at the foot of the cliff. 

We also called on Henry W. Moncure, a wealthy 
merchant and proprietor of Montpelier, the residence of 
the late President Madison. He was desirous we 
should visit it and proffered his compairy. We found 
mechanics fitting up the mansion at a cost of from 4000 
to 5000 dollars. The estate contains 1750 acres, mostly 
of excellent quality. We had many offers, say 16 
dollars per acre, with farming utensils, stock, crops, in- 
cluding 2000 bushels of wheat on the floor, 3000 to 
4000 bushels of corn and a large crop of tobacco ; every- 
thing except the negroes — of whom there were seven- 
teen—these of course were slaves. Friend Moncure 
greatly desired to open Virginia to a different class of 
people, and told an acquaintance on the cars that he 
hoped to induce us to form a settlement at Montpelier 
and thus introduce a better element into the popula- 
tion. His friend replied, "Well, sir, if you will do 



KZRA MICHENER, M. D. 6l 

that, I will erect a monument to your memory as a 
public benefactor of the State of Virginia." Such was 
the character of our welcome everywhere. That it was 
sincere is shown by the fact that he accompanied us 
seventy-seven miles, spent two whole days in exhibiting 
the property and after making us five various conditions, 
returned home just on the eve of his daughter's wed- 
ding. I am satisfied that he would have sold it to us for 
$5000 less than he would to a Virginian. It was hard 
to resist the solicitations of so good a man, but oh, that 
slavery ! 

I had a long and interesting talk with several slave- 
holders near the close of our visit in which I spoke of 
the intelligence, enterprise and moral w r orth of our 
colored people at the North. One of my listeners 
quickly replied, "They are some of our runaways; 
whenever a slave becomes a little better informed he is 
sure to run away. Our runaways are alwa} 7 s our 
best and most valuable servants." I assured them that 
we had many free-born colored people and added : It 
appears that }^ou must first degrade and imbrute the 
man before he can be held a slave. I queried with 
them if there was no plan by which this inclination to 
run away might be removed. They had never known 
such a plan, but would like to see it. I said I would 
suggest one : Suppose I buy 200 acres of }^our land 
with three or four families of slaves on it. On calling 
them together I would say, " Now, boys, I cannot keep 
you as slaves, but I need your work and you need a 
place to live and a means of living. I will set you free. 
You must now work like good boys and I will pay you 
for each day's work ; this will enable you to support 
your own families. To do so you will have to save 
your earnings, live sober, industrious lives and send 



62 AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTES. 

your children to school. You are free and must live 
like freemen." Now, I asked, would these men run 
away from me ? The reply was, ! ' No, they would 
not have any inducement to do so." Again I ques- 
tion, would not any one of them perform as much 
work as any three of your slaves ? The answer was, 
"Probably they would." Would not the cost in 
wages be much less than the capital invested and the 
maintenance of so many old, very 3^oung and sick 
slaves ? To this there was an emphatic ' ' No doubt of 
that." Then, I replied, let every slave-holder in 
Virginia try the experiment. Notwithstanding this 
liberality toward our views, there was a universal feel- 
ing of repugnance to liberation without colonization. 

CORRESPONDENCE AND ESSAYS. 

New Garden, Fifth of 11th Month, 1860. 

SCHOOLFIELD & Co. : 

Your neat circular with the "magnificent scheme," was duly 
received. Like other men, I appreciate favors coming from 
strangers and unsolicited ; but it exceeds my comprehension why 
you should have singled me out, and made me the special re- 
cipient of your favor, even to the small amount of $156,000. A 
little investigation, however, shows that what purported to be a 
private and special offer, was a stereotyped circular which had 
been addressed to thousands of other persons, making them each 
the same offer which very few, perhaps only one, could realize. 
It was indeed a lottery. 

This led me to examine the "magnificent scheme," and to 
cipher a little. 

The tickets at $20.00 would amount to §1,527,520 

The prizes amount to 1,171,950 



Loss, 355,570 

To which add 15 per cent. 58,597 and we have 



cash lost by the purchase, $414,167 



EZRA MICHENER, M. D. 63 

This gave me to understand why you would rather sell than 
buy. They cost nearly half a million more than they are worth ; 
it also shows the source and the baseness of jour generosity, and 
the reason why. as you say, " There exists a strong feeling in the 
State, etc," and you might have added, ;> In all other States." If 
so inany persons would each purchase a ticket, the aggregate 
loss would be just the same, while it' equally divided, each one 
would lose $5.44 ; but the holders of the 41,664 blanks would not re- 
ceive anything, and many of the prizes would not return half the 
cost of the ticket. You ostensibly address me as an " influential 
person," and ask my influence to overcome the prejudice against 
lotteries. You write so to all. You may often mistake your man ; 
this is your lottery. If you draw a blank, it is little lost, but if 
you find one who does not comprehend your iC magnificent 
scheme," one not accustomed to count the cost, one who does not 
scruple to take unjust gains, more especially one whose finances 
are already desperate, you will perhaps draw a prize. This is 
your hope. These are the victims whom you are plundering of 
their scanty means. It is a game which you understand and they 
do not, hence they continually play into your pockets. 

You solicit my influence. It is freely given ; not to remove, 
but to strengthen and increase the " strong feeling which exists " 
in this State and elsewhere against lotteries. 

Lottery gambling is a nefarious business, conceived in deception 
and nurtured by robbery. Its managers hold, absolute control 
over it. Can we have any assurance that the scheme would be 
fairly and honestly carried out for the interest of the ticket holder, 
in such a concern and by such men ? I think not. 

"Wealth thus suddenly acquired is often more disastrous than a 
blank. I knew, for example, an industrious and thrifty mechanic, 
the husband of a noble woman and the father of five lovely and 
promising children. In an evil hour he was induced to buy a 
lottery ticket which unfortunately turned out a prize. Business 
was soon followed by idleness and idleness by dissipation. His 
house became the resort of his unprofitable companions and his 
money was rapidly wasted. In this particular case the full measure 
of disastrous results was meted out. The man retired at a late 
hour after a debauch, to be awakened by the crackling flames. 



64 ATJTOGRAPHICAI, XOTKS. 

His wife and two children were, with difficulty, rescued from the 
burning building, the other three perished. The morning found 
him destitute of everything he had possessed, with not even a suit 
of clothes for one of his family. 

The preceding letter was sent to a Wilmington daily 
paper, and from it copied by others. Soon after I re- 
ceived the following ' ' greeting ' ' from an honest old 
German : 

East Vincent, Chester Co., Dec. 20, 1860. 

Unknown Friend : — So I call you on account of your plainly 
committed to writing expose of the character of those lottery 
gamblers. I should like to picture them and warn the commun- 
ity at large to he aware of the clandestine robbers. I had three of 
such like letters, and when I showed the last one to my son-in- 
law, he told me he had two or three likewise. I then said if they 
would promise me twenty times as much, it would be no induce- 
ment to me to lead others to be robbed of their money. It is an 
old German saying that a burned child dreads the fire. In the 
year 1797, I had three tickets of the Grand Union Canal Lottery at 
ten dollars apiece, and in the summer of 1799, having occasion to 
be in Philadelphia for a few days, I called at the lottery office on 
Chestnut street to see what my tickets had drawn. A fee of 
twenty-five cents was demanded of me (on each ticket) and I paid 
it. Then I was told that each had drawn twenty-five cents, but 
they kept that also. 

Friend, as I had to call you, because in your description of the 
lottery gamblers you possess honesty and seem not ashamed to 
publish your opinion, if I were given to use such language, I 
should write a great deal concerning unjust dealings and likewise 
publishing untruths. But when at times I write to publishers to 
correct their untruths, I generally come out so flat on them that 
they get angry, and when they do sometimes say for me something, 
they put it in such shape — much hindmost foremost — that none 
would know what I would say. 

What a prosperous country we should have if each inhabitant 
would observe the few following words : Why should I deprive 
mv neighbor of his goods against his will ? 



EZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 65 

Hauds are made for honest toil, but not to plunder or to steal. 
If that had been strictly observed these many years, according to 
the Golden A, B, C, our country would not be at this time in such 
revolutionary discomposure. 

Consider for a moment, if we take to the natural law, so I will 
call it, which Moses of old received from the owner of all, and 
which he gave to his brother Aaron — which order he obeyed and 
it was transferred to us— but a Yankee steps in and reverses all 
law and order. It is a natural fact to everybody, that if he buys 
anything and pays for it, that makes him the sole owner of it and 
he may take it where he will ; but the Yankee says, " I have had 
possession so and so many years, and on that account it is mine 
whether you paid for it or not." I must stop writing for this 
time, only to remark yet, that if your dealings are in all respects 
so Christian-like as that appeared on which head I took my pen, 
and you desire a more explicit explanation, then please drop a few 
lines on the subject and I will be ready to answer the same. 
Kespectfaliy, etc., Yours, 

Feedeeick Setjdee. 

Note. — I did not "drop the few lines," but. have been favored 
with three supplements to the above, treating of capital punish- 
ment, law and order, and on the subject of relief for sufferers in 
Kansas. 

In i860, I published my Retrospect of Early Quaker- 
ism. It was my purpose : 

First, to collect and preserve a brief history of the 
meetings, composing the Yearly Meeting of Philadel- 
phia. 

Second, to illustrate the principles and to trace the 
development and practical working of our discipline. 

Third, more especially to trace the progress of the 
testimonies of the Society for the maintenance of peace, 
the abolition of slavery and the promotion of temper- 
ance. 

The title of the book, was not of my choosing, 
but was accepted in deference to kind friends. 



66 ATJTOGRAPHICAI, NOTKS. 

My most excellent friend and father, Samuel Com- 
fort, seems not to have fully embraced the idea that was 
intended to be expressed, as will appear from the 
following friendly note : 

Neae Moeeisville, Bucks Co., Pa., 

Fifth Mo. 7th, 1860. 
Esteemed Feiend Ezea Michenee : 

I have read with, much interest the Ketrospect of Early Quaker- 
ism. It must have been a laborious work, requiring much time 
and close attention, and will doubtless be useful and interesting to 
many members of Society, and others who have the privilege of 
reading it. 

The map of all the meetings belonging to the Yearly Meeting is 
new to me, with their bearings and distances, and its construction 
must have been an arduous work. I believe thou art entitled to 
much credit for the valuable collection thou has made on various 
subjects that have been the concern of Friends and meetings from 
time to time ; yet there is one word which I regret to find stand- 
ing where it does on the subject of visiting families ; page 210 — 
the word licentious. Should another edition be called for, do leave 
it out. I would not make thee an offender for a word. It does 
not seem to me that a licentious person could be qualified 
" profitably to admonish others." The word must have slipped in 
without due consideration. 

Samuel Comfoet. 

The object of religious association is the mutual aid 
and encouragement one of another. Great as are the 
advantages of the upright, the strong in faith, the clean- 
handed, yet the halt and lame, the doubting, even the 
vicious may admonish and instruct each other. They 
can and sometimes do testify to the error of their ways 
from their own experience, and may be listened to by 
those who would turn away from the clean-handed. 



KZRA MICHKNKK, M. D. 67 

Rooms of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences, 

Buffalo, Jan. 7th, 1867. 

EZEA MlCHENER, ESQ., 

Avondale, Pa. 
The Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences, desirous of possessing the 
likenesses of its honorary and corresponding members, respect- 
fully asks that you will make it the recipient of your own. A 
photograph in carte 'de visite form is most desirable. Such a 
donation will be highly prized by the society, and I hope soon to 
have the pleasure of acknowledging its receipt. 
Yours very respectfully, 

Chas. D. Marshall, 

Corresponding Secretary. 

PEESIDENT U. S. GRANT AND THE INDIANS. 

God in his infinite wisdom and goodness, and in loving mercy, 
not only to the poor persecuted red man, but to the more wicked, 
persecuting white man also, having in his own good time been 
pleased to put it into the heart of Ulysses S. Grant, himself a 
warrior by profession, and, as President, Commander-in-chief of 
the Army and Navy, the whole military power of this great nation, 
to substitute love for force, the benevolence of the gospel for 
rapine and murder as a means of civilizing the Indians, he yet 
found it difficult, surrouncled as he was by military experts, who 
had for a long time reaped a rich harvest from the proverbial 
Indian wars, to inaugurate any plan for the accomplishment of his 
benevolent purpose. The distributive agency of the Indian 
Bureau was in the hands of unprincipled men who managed to 
appropriate large portions of the Indian appropriations to their 
own use. The vexation, the want, the suffering thus inflicted 
upon the poor Indians, often prompted them to retaliate by some 
act of open or secret violence ; when the hue and cry of Indian 
hostilities would be immediately raised and the military power 
called into requisition. How, then, did the President accomplish 
the herculean task of cleansing this augean stable of fraud and 
blood and murder? Why, just as others have accomplished great 
and good ends, by the exercise of common sense, and an observ- 
ance of the leadings and pointings of the*finger of Providence, 
who is ever seeking to conduct the willing and obedient soul in 
the way of its high and holy destiny. 



68 AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTES. 

In looking round for historical precedents, the eyes of the 
executive soon rested on the kind, equitable and pacific policy of 
Wm. Penn toward the Indians, with its happy and enduring 
results. The query naturally arose, if the just and equitable 
intentions of Win. Penn, when fully carried out, had secured the 
lasting confidence and friendship of the Indian without resort to 
compulsion, why might not the same policy, on the part of the 
Government, secure the same happy results? He resolved to 
make the trial. But to whom shall such an important duty be 
assigned ? If a pacific policy was to be inaugurated, it must be 
transferred from the military to the civil department. It must be 
placed in the hands of men possessed of pacific principles to ensure 
a faithful and successful execution of the plan. 

Knowing as he well did, the various religious sentiments and 
practices prevalent among the people, his hopes centered upon the 
descendants of Wm. Penn and his co-adjutors, who still adhere to* 
the same principles, and who possess more of the Indians' confidence 
than any other class of our citizens. Who so likely to properly 
introduce the policy of Penn and to maintain it, as the fellow 
professors of Perm ? It was determined the trial should be made. 
Calling to his aid a few confidential members of our Society, 
the plau was matured and proposals issued, which were promptly re- 
sponded to by Friends, and resulted in the assignment of two 
superintendencies to the care of our Society — one to us and one 
to Orthodox Friends, so called. 

Encouraged by the success of two years' experiment, the Presi- 
dent has recently extended the same invitation to other religious 
denominations. The various Indian tribes are divided into 
agencies and each of these is provided with a resident agent. 
Several of these agencies are then included in one superintendency : 
the whole placed under the direction and supervision of a resident 
superintendent . 

The Yearly Meetings of Philadelphia, Xew York, Baltimore, 
Ohio, Indiana and Genessee, have all acceded to the plan proposed, 
and have distributed the charge in a somewhat similar manner ; 
thus they have appointed a joint committee of all the meetings to 
exercise a general direction of the concern, but each agency is 
placed directly under the care and management of some one of the 
Yearly Meetings. 



EZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 69 

In the execution of these extraordinary measures for the 
amelioration of the hapless condition of the Red Men, there were 
found religiously concerned and devoted Friends who felt that it 
was required of them to lay the comforts of home and of civilized 
life upon the altar of benevolence ; to accept a situation of suffer- 
ing, of labor, of peril as instructors and exemplars of their poor 
and uncivilized brethren. 

Xow I have given this hasty review of the situation in order to 
impress upon you the imperious duty resting upon us as members 
of our Religious Society, to encourage and sustain those devoted 
heralds of humanity, by our sympathy and our means, to furnish 
them out of our abundance, with the one thing needful to carry on 
the glorious work to which they have been called. 

The African, the Indian, outcasts of whatever nation or color, 
liave ever been accepted as wards of the religious Society of Friends. 
The field now open before us is of unlimited extent, and affords 
promise of extraordinary results. My anxious concern is, that we 
may be found equal to the occasion, and willing to meet all its re- 
quirements. Let not any attempt to excuse themselves by say- 
ing that the Yearly Meeting has assumed the responsibility. A 
Yearly Meeting cannot have an existence apart from its mem- 
bers. They are, and they only, are the Yearly Meeting, and the 
responsibilities of the body rest with proportional weight upon 
every one of its members. In the rendering of this responsibility, 
it must not be forgotten that the Widow's Mite will be as accepta- 
ble in the sight of God as the abundance of the wealthy. 

E. Michexer. 

Philadelphia, Eleventh Mo. 19, 1871. 
Esteemed Feiexd : 

Our beloved friend Samuel M. Janney, who has returned safely 
from his mission in Xebraska, attended Baltimore Yearly Meeting, 
and in the meeting of delegates from the six Yearly Meetings, 
informed that he was making up his report to the department at 
Washington and desired to know the amount contributed by 
Friends to this cause during the whole of his superintendency. 
This can only be ascertained by application to each of the Indian 
Aids. You, therefore, are requested to state the value not only of 
what you sent to this city to be forwarded, but also of anything 
you may have sent direct to the agencies. 

Deborah F. Wharton. 



70 AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTKS. 

Twenty-Fifth of 11th Mo., 1871. 
D. F. Wharton. 
Dear Friend : — Our Indian Aid Society, in 1870, contributed in 

money, $174.75 

New garments, 343, 40.50 



Worn clothing, 


. 


. 


25.00 


Garden seeds, 






5.00 




$245.25 




In 1871. 






Money, 


. 


. 


$114.70 


New garments, 77, 


. 


. 


15.40 


Worn clothing, 


. 


. 


20.00 


Garden seeds, 


. 


• 


5.00 




155.10 


Freight, 


• 


• 


5.00 




160.10 






(1870) 


245.25 



Whole amount, ..... $405.35 

It is believed that this amount might have been raised to $500.00. 

E. Michenek. 



THE ANTI-DIEUVIAN AND POST-DILUVIAN 
AGES. 

" The days of our years are three score years and ten. Or even 
by reason of streugth, four score years, yet is their pride but labour 
and sorrow." Psalms XC, 10. 

I have this day completed my four score years, and 
consequently have attained thereto, through labor, and 
sorrow ; and feel that I am standing on the distal verge 
of human life. Yet, when I read the early history of 
our race, from Creation down to the Deluge, I find that 
I have not yet reached the tenth part of the patriarchal 
ages. 



EZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 7 1 

To the biblical student, the extreme longevity of our 
earty progenitors, and its sudden and remarkable 
reduction after the Flood, opens an interesting and 
instructive field for inquiry. He will, naturally, seek 
for some cause or condition which led to this extreme 
change in the physical relations of the race, but he 
will look in vain. Revelation has not furnished and 
reason cannot furnish an explanation. 

The hypothesis has indeed been advanced, that this 
primeval longevity was granted them in order that in 
obedience to the command given them they might Be 
fruitful, a?id multiply, and replenish the earth. But 
there are serious objections to this seemingly plausible 
explanation. 

i st. On the supposition here given, we should expect 
the early and continued exercise of paternity. But, if we 
except the births of Cain and Abel, both of whom soon 
dropped out of the category, Adam does not appear to 
have exercised his paternal faculties for the first hun- 
dred and thirty years of his life. The same retardation 
of paternity occurs in the notices of all the other patri- 
archs down to Noah. Tabulated, it stands thus : 



Adam, 


130 years. 


Seth, 


105 years. 


Enos, 


90 " 


Cainan, 


70 " 


Mahalaleel. 


65 " 


Jared, 


162 " 


Enoch, 


65 " 


Methuselah, 


187 •' 


Lamech, 


182 " 


Noah, 


500 " 


Shem, 


100 " 







2nd. After the occurrence of the Deluge, and the 
depopulation of the earth, the longevity of the people 
was suddenly reduced to less than one-fourth of its 
former duration ; }^et it must be remembered that the 
same necessity existed, and the same command was 



72 AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTKS. 

reissued to Noah, as had been given to Adam, in the 
beginning : "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish 



the earth/ ' 


Compare the J 


following with the preceding 


table : 








Arphaxad, 


35 403 438 


Selah, 


30 403 433 


Eber, 


34 430 464 


Peleg, 


30 209 239 


Rue, 


32 207 239 


Serug, 


39 191 230 


Nahor, 


29 119 148 


Terah, 


70 135 205 


Abram, 


100 75 175 


Isaac, 


60 128 188 


Jacob, 


65 82 147 







From a careful review of the genealogy of the patri- 
archial ages, as they are rendered by the author of the 
Pentateuch, it seems quite probable that he intended it 
to embrace a more comprehensive and profound signi- 
fication than the literal meaning of the language conveys. 

The language of the historian abounds in tropes and 
figures. Indeed, the whole history of the creation is 
one grand and instructive figure from the beginning to 
the end. 

' ' In the beginning God created the heavens and the 
earth. And the earth was without form and void, and 
darkness was upon the face of the deep." This terse 
phrase has no immediate relation to the Creation which 
Moses was about to describe. It refers us away back 
beyond all those numerous, and enormous, geological 
periods of time which the science of geology has 
brought into view, and ought to constitute a distinct 
and separate chapter in the earth's history, with a 
broad hiatus between it and the .first day of creation, 
which follows : 

The six days of creation, as subsequently recorded, 
should not be understood as having any direct chro- 
nological connection with the beginning ; nor should 



EZRA MICHENER, M. D. 73 

they be accepted literally as days. They were obvi- 
ously intended to represent those successive geological 
periods and their physical changes, which, in the 
Divine progress, were modifying and preparing the 
earth for the habitation of his creatures, beginning with 
the lower orders and ascending, gradatum, up to man. 

If we apply the same rule of interpretation to the 
chronology of the patriarchs, we may perhaps discover 
that instead of so many long lived individuals, their 
names more properly represent particular tribes or 
hordes, which may have retained the names of their 
original patriarchs, or chiefs, long after they were 
dead. The pastoral mode of living — which perhaps 
always precedes the agricultural, and which, in the 
present instance, seems to have been continued down to 
the entrance of the Israelites into Egypt — accords well 
with the patriarchal state and condition, which I have 
suggested. 

The following diagram, embracing a view of the 
w T hole subject, is drawn on a proportional scale of four 
hundred years to the inch. From it we will draw our 
illustration. 

Thus the first tribe, Adam, commenced at Creation 
and continued on increasing in numbers from his 
descendants, for one hundred and thirty years — say the 
sixth or higher generation. The name Adam, being 
less personal than a family name, was properly applied 
to the whole company as a tribe. KX. the end of the 
one hundred and thirty years the tribe having grown 
too numerous for the convenience of nomadic life, one 
of Adam's sons — no matter whether he was the third 
or the thirtieth — separated a company or tribe, under 
his own name, Seth. The tribe, Adam, still continuing 































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£ S 












































































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■■••:. 














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! 




























\* 


























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■■■ 




















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: 






























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/., (. 


















































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:,,- 


















r>f 






































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-,: 


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'., 
















































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7 V 


-:- 




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h 


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■*■ 


61 




U 


2=>»z, 






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cPtf.'Aafacis 
















































^J/LiaA' 




,, 


7 












































J '\ 6U*- 


















































r *M 




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m 






' 












































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3 


'^e/^yu^^^ 


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'H 


r<J£<^ 














































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74 AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTES. 

on, and giving off other tribes from time to time, until 
it was finally broken up or dispersed, at the end of nine 
hundred and thirty years. 

The history of the successive tribes of Enos, Cainan r 
Mahalaleel, etc., etc., down to that of Jacob, would be 
only a repetition of those already mentioned, and need 
not be particularized. 

It must, however, be remembered, that the historian 
has given us only the names of those tribes whose chiefs 
fell in the lineal descent from Adam to Jesus ; but 
numerous other tribes would necessarily separate from 
the parent stems as years and centuries rolled on. 

The annexed table is drawn on a proportionate scale 
of four hundred years to an inch. 

ELECTRICITY. 

Unhappily, only a few persons, comparatively speak- 
ing, have had the opportunity to become acquainted 
with scientific electricit3 T , and consequently do not 
very clearly comprehend either the theoretical use or 
the practical construction of the lightning-rod. The 
want of this knowledge has left them exposed to the 
artifices of those unscrupulous charletans, the itinerant 
lightning-rod man, who is too often ready to perpe- 
trate the grossest impositions on their unsuspecting or 
too credulous victims. 

The purpose of this essay is to furnish the reader 
with such fixed and determined facts and principles 
and such rational deductions therefrom as will not only 
enable him to detect the fraudulent devices of the 
mountebank, but also to determine what kind of a rod 
is most proper and to superintend its construction in his 
own way, at a tithe of the cost of some patent absurdity. 



KZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 75 

A thunder-storm, in its intensity, is certainly one of 
the most awfully grand, one of the most beautifully 
sublime, and withal, one of the most terrific scenes 
which the eye can witness or the mind contemplate. 
The prime agent in its production is electricity. 
Of the intrinsic nature of this sublime and mysterious 
agent we absolutely know nothing. 

Of its properties as manifested to our senses, and of 
the laws which regulate and control its forces, we 
possess only a limited and imperfect knowledge. It is 
not intended in this essay to pursue the inquiry any 
further than is necessary to afford a clear comprehen- 
sion of the proper construction and the modus-operandi 
of the lightning-rod. 

We must not, indeed we cannot, ignore the fact that 
there have been two rival theories devised in relation to 
the electrical force, whatever it may be. Two modes 
of explaining the phenomena which it presents. 

Professor Tyndall says : ' ! Franklin devised the theory 
of a single electric fluid. This fluid he supposed to be 
self-repulsive and diffused in definite quantities through 
all bodies. He supposed that when a body has more 
than its proper share, it is positively, and when less 
than its proper share, it is negatively electrified.. 
Symmer devised the theory of two electric fluids, each 
self- repulsive and both mutually attractive. All bodies 
in a natural state, possessing both fluids in equal quan- 
tities, as long as the fluids are mixed together, they 
neutralize each other. The terms positive and nega- 
tive, with the signs + and — , as adopted by Franklin „ 
were indicative of the excess and deficiency of the 
electricity ; but the advocates of the duplex theory 
have, strangely enough, adopted the same names for their 



76 AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTES. 

two electricities instead of the more appropriate ones, 
vitrious and resinous. 

The theory of a single fluid while it is both Frank- 
linian and American, is more simple and easily com- 
prehended. I shall therefore accept it on this occasion, 
without deciding whether the more elaborate investiga- 
tions of the scientist will require its final rejection. 

Electricity, electric fluid, electric force, etc., may, in 
this connection, be conveniently considered as one of 
the primary forms of matter, co-ordinate with its 
congeners, caloric and light, and like them, capable of 
existing either in a latent and quiescent form or in an 
active state, cognizable by the senses. 

Electricity attracts and is attracted by all material 
substances, but its own particles mutually and power- 
fully repel each other. 

Electricity, more or less, freely traverses the surface 
of some forms of matter — the metals and moist sub- 
stances generally — which are thence called conductors of 
electricity. It is unable or nearly so, to traverse other 
forms of matter — amber, sulphur, resin, silk, glass — 
whrch are thence called non-conductors of electricity. 

Electricity is roused from a latent state and rendered 
active by friction and other agencies. Thus if we rub 
a rod of glass and a rod of metal, the latent electricity 
of both rods will be set free ; but tnth this notable 
difference, the glass of the one being a non-conductor, 
the liberated fluid cannot flow off over its surface and 
accumulates upon it ; the glass is then said to be 
diarged. The metal of the other being itself a con- 
ductor, the fluid, as fast as. it is set free, flows off to the 
hand which holds it. But if we insulate the metal rod, 
support it on glass or hold it by a silk or buck-skin 



EZRA MICHENER, M. D. JJ 

glove, the free electricity, no longer able to escape, will 
accumulate in the same manner and present the same 
electrical phenomena as the glass one. 

From these and similar facts, it may be inferred that 
the electric fluid everywhere tends, by its own inherent 
repulsion, to produce an equilibrium — a state of rest and 
passivity in which it ceases to be cognizable by the 
senses. That all the electrical phenomena which we 
witness, whether the}~ be produced by natural or arti- 
ficial means, are the result of the disturbance and ob- 
struction to this equilibrium by the non-conductors 
which lie in its path. Consequently, that if all matter 
had been made capable of free conduction of electricity^ 
we might never have known of its existence. 

This brings us to the practical study of artificial 
electricity in illustration of the consimilar phenomena of 
natural electricit} r by means of the electrical machine. 

The usual electrical machine consists of three 
essential parts. The electric, a glass cylinder or glass 
plate, which is made to revolve by means of a crank ; 
the rubber or cushion, which is made to press against 
the glass by means of a spring, and the receiver or 
prime conductor, usually a closed tin or copper vessel r 
supported on a pallor of glass or other non-conducting 
substance. As the cylinder a (Fig. I) is made to 
revolve, the rubber b is pressed upon it by the elastic 
spring d. The electricity liberated by the friction, is 
carried over on the surface of the glass to f, where a 
series of metallic points take it off and store it away in 
the receiver d c for future experimental uses. 

By means of this simple machine, with some easily- 
made and inexpensive apparatus, it is easy to produce 
most of the phenomena of a thunder-storm in miniature.. 



78 AUTOGRAPHIC AIv NOTES. 

I have already spoken of the electrical atmosphere. 
The receiver or prime conductor is now charged ; the 
•electricity has assumed an atmospheric form around it. 

The atmosphere is shown in Fig. I as it encloses a 
section of the receiver. When the hand is brought 
within this atmosphere, it receives a sensation as of a 
current of cool air blowing upon it ; when brought still 
nearer, it receives a luminous spark, attended with a 
report and the instrument will have lost the most of its 
charge. Its atmosphere has vanished. If I bring a 
cork ball suspended by a non-conducting silk thread 
near the charged receiver, it will be suddenly attracted 
to it, will receive a spark, and now having an atmos- 
phere of its own, is as suddenly repelled and is held at a 
distance by the mutual repulsion of the two atmos- 
pheres, as shown by Fig. III. If I bring my finger near 
the ball, it is attracted to it, gives off the spark it had 
received and is then again attracted and repelled as 
before. It may thus be made to vibrate back and forth 
until the whole charge is carried away from the 
machine. When several balls are suspended in the 
same way, their several atmospheres will be manifested 
by their mutual repulsion, Fig. IV. 

As already intimated, the arrangement of the elec- 
trical atmosphere around the electrified body, depends 
upon two principal factors : the attractive force of the 
b>ody and the self-repelling force of the electricity. The 
atmosphere is an equilibrium of these antagonistic forces. 
In a spherical body where the centre is equi-distant 
from all points of the surface, the atmosphere will be 
equally distributed over its surface, Fig. V; but when the 
body is irregular, the distribution will be also irregular. 

In the conoid body, Fig. VI, the smaller end being 



EZRA MICHKNER, M. D. 79 

more distant from the centre of attraction, the repulsive 
force will meet with less resistance and will drive the 
atmosphere inversely to a greater distance from the 
surface, as shown in the figure. We may go on elongat- 
ing the point until its attractive force becomes so feeble 
as to permit the repulsive force to drive the electricity 
entirely off and thus effect a spontaneous discharge. 
We must not hastily dismiss this highly important 
point, as it possesses very curious and interesting pro- 
perties. If I put a pointed wire in the prime conductor, 
Fig. VII, the machine cannot be charged, but a strong 
current of air will be felt issuing from the point, accom- 
panied in the dark by a beautiful brush of electrical 
light. The explanation has been anticipated ; the 
attractive force of the attenuated metal is not sufficient 
to resist the repelling force. 

But points attract or receive as well as disperse 
electricity. When I present a metallic ball to the 
charged receiver, no effect is observed until it comes 
near, w T hen a strong spark is received. This is called 
the striking distance, which varies continually with the 
strength of the charge and the form, size and material 
of the approximating parts, Fig. VIII. If, instead of 
the ball, I present a pointed wire, Fig. IX, a, the 
result is quite different. While the point is yet far off, 
the charge begins to gradually pass off, and long before 
the point reaches its destination, is entirely exhausted. 
The discharge takes place silently with only a luminous 
star on the point when seen in the dark. The disparity 
of effect is rendered still more obvious when both ball 
and point are presented at once, Fig. IX, b. The 
point reduces the charge before the ball can reach the 
striking distance. The same result follow r s even when 



80 AUTOGRAPHIC AI, NOTES. 

the point is kept much behind the ball, Fig. IX, c. 
The presence of contiguous bodies around the point 
may diminish or entirely annul the power to attract 
or disperse the electric fluids ; the reason seems to be 
that the greater combined electricities of the object, 
with that of the point, affords greater resistance to the 
charge than that of the point alone could do. This is a 
matter of great significance. 

Ever since electricity was brought into the arena for 
scientific investigation, the phenomena presented by the 
working of the electrical machine, crude as it nia}^ have 
been, could hardly fail to suggest the resemblance 
between artificial electricity and lightning ; but it was 
reserved for the inductive reasoning, the keen sagacity, 
and the inventive genius of our Franklin to demonstrate 
their identity. The method which he used was as 
simple as its conception was brilliant — an armed kite. 
The conclusion was thus satisfactorily reached that 
electricity was one and the same thing, whether elicited 
by the friction of an amber bead, by the drawing of a 
silk stocking, b}~ the stroking of a cat's back, by the 
working of an electrical machine, or by the grand and 
terrific movements of a thunder-storm as it hurls the 
dread artillery of heaven on a terrified w T orld. 

The Franklin lightning rod consisted of a bar of 
rolled iron, planted a few feet in the ground, supported by 
attachments to the building, and reaching a few feet 
above the roof, terminating in an acute point. From 
the known operation of metallic points, it was hoped 
and confidently expected that a rod so constructed 
w r ould silenth' and imperceptibly disarm the cloud of 
its danger before it could come within striking distance 
of the building. Sad experience has shown that it has 



EZRA MICHENER, M. D. 8 1 

too often failed to do so. The very important question, 
how to construct a lightning rod, can only be answered 
by a knowledge of the reasons why it has hitherto 
failed to be effective. 

After long and anxious inquiry, I have decided that 
common round iron is practically the best material for 
lightning rods. It is to my mind self evident, that as 
we increase the size and solidity of the rod, we not 
only increase its attractive force, but by increasing the 
surface, we reduce the tension and consequently the re- 
pulsive force of the charge. If so, it must follow that 
we increase the power of the rod to hold the charge to 
its surface, and at the same time render its transit down 
the rod more easy. 

It was formerly the practice and is yet too common, 
to attach the rod to the building by various devices, but 
the plan is not a safe one. About forty years ago, I recom- 
mended the plan of attaching the rod to a pole some 
distance from the building and disconnected with it. 
This method has so far appeared to be a success in all 
the cases where it has been adopted. My own rod, 
four feet from the barn, was struck without injury to the 
building. All sudden angles or short curves should be 
avoided, yet our patent venders are continually carrying 
their copper shoe-strings in every direction, over angles, 
cornices and roofs, to stick a point a foot or two above 
the middle of the roof, where, as I shall show, it is 
altogether powerless. The requirements for an electric 
point, are a sharp attenuated termination, and a 
material that will not corrode with rust. Mere bright- 
ness is of no consequence, if the point retains its sharp- 
ness. 

Now that silver has again put in an appearance, it is 



82 AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTKS. 

decidedly the cheapest and best material. The costly 
platinum and gilt points possess no advantage over the 
following, which I have made and used for years : 
Take a half dollar and cut it into four pieces. Get 
your blacksmith to forge the two central pieces into points 
and give him the other two pieces for his service. A 
few strokes of the file will finish the job, and you have 
two points equal to those you would buy for seven or 
eight dollars, at a cost of only twenty-five cents. For 
the manufacture and use of this point, be it known there 
is no patent. 

Thirty-nine years ago, I enthusiastically wrote : 
' \ I^et the conditions of a perfect conductor be complied 
with, make it one connected whole, sink it deep into 
the earth, elevate it above all near objects and finish it 
with a perfect point, and he who recommends it will 
cheerfully abide the trial." So far is the rod from 
presenting a point for the lightning to strike to, that I 
believe it impossible for it to do so when properly con- 
structed in every particular. My opinion is unchanged ; 
my confidence unshaken ; but subsequent experience 
has taught me, as well as others, that there are serious 
obstacles in the way of thus providing for all the con- 
tingencies that may occur. It is indeed probable that 
contingencies may arise in which no human ingenuity 
can afford protection. Cases where distance and magni- 
tude will ever defy our puny efforts. 

We cannot stay the earthquake nor stop the cyclone 
in its destructive path. Yet, is it our duty to employ 
the faculties which God has given us to investigate the 
phenomena of nature, to study the laws by which they 
are governed, and so far as we may, subject them to 
our use, and ward off the danger which they may 
threaten. 



EZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 83 

In nine cases out of ten where failures have occurred, 
the fluid has passed safely down the rod to the earth 
and then by a back stroke, entered the building a few 
inches from the ground. Here are the materials for a 
new study. The rod may be capable of carrying and 
dispersing a silent stream of electricity, but when an in- 
tensified charge is thrown upon it with the suddenness 
and velocity of a lightning stroke, the tension of its 
atmosphere will be proportioned to the charge. This 
highly intensified atmosphere, thus instantaneously 
hurled down the rod with an inconceivable velocity to 
the earth, is there squarely met and its further pro- 
gress as suddenly arrested. 

Now let us ask what is likely to follow, what must 
inevitably follow. If it cannot diffuse itself over and in 
the earth — and facts prove that it cannot — it must and 
will force a passage by a secondary stroke, to some 
other contiguous object, mostly to the building it was 
intended to protect. Extraordinary cases of this kind 
completely knock from under, our dependence on the 
rod to conduct the charge into the earth or to scatter it 
over the surface with certainty and safety, until some 
more efficient method can be devised for dispersing the 
charge. L,et us then endeavor to increase by every 
means we possess, the preventive capacity of the rod, 
and to establish a better connection to carry away and 
disperse the fluid when a stroke occurs. Seven years 
ago I made the suggestion, and have since put it into 
execution, of keeping the base of the rod or a branch 
from it, above the ground ; the rod being thus carried 
to any desirable distance, and with the addition of some 
old castings at its distal extremity, would, it is believed, 
lead the charge away from the building and disperse it 
at a safe distance. 



84 AUTOGRAPHICAIv NOTES. 

Fifth of iiTh mo., 1877. — Received a certificate 
of election as corresponding member of the West 
Chester Microscopical Society from C. H. Pennepacker. 

At the request of the Superintendent of Public 
Schools, I furnished him with a history of the estab- 
lishment of Friends' Meetings within the County, as 
showing very nearly the time of opening the respective 
schools belonging thereto. It was issued by Judge 
Futhey in his report of the schools of the County. 

Having seen a notice of the formation of the May 
Anti-Slavery Library at Cornell University, and hav- 
ing some documents of value, I forwarded them at once 
and received the following acknowledgment and many 
thanks : 

" The Cornell University thankfully acknowledges the receipt 
of the books — a list of which is hereto appended — which you 
have recently been kindly pleased to present to its Library. The 
volumes have been entered upon the Register of Gifts, duly 
catalogued and placed upon the shelves of the University Library. 

W. FlSKE, 

Utica, N. Y., Feb. 12, 1877. Librarian. 

IyisT of Books Presented by Dr. Ezra Michener 
for the May Coixection : 

Benezet, Anthony and John Wesley : 

Views of American Slavery taken twenty years ago. 

Philadelphia, 1838, i2nio. 
BiU), Mrs. Iy. M. : 

An appeal in favor of that class of Americans called 
Africans. New York, 1836, i2mo. 

Grimke, A. E. : 

Letters to Catherine E. Beecher. 

Boston, 1838, i2ino. 



EZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 85 

Phelps, Amos A. : 
Lectures on Slavery and its Remedy. 

Boston, 1834., i2mo. 
Gknius of Universal Emancipation. 
New Series, Vols. I, II. 

July, 1827, 8, fto. 
11 National Era," G. Bailey, Editor. 
Vols. I to XIV, 1847, 60 — (some vols, incomplete). 

Washington, 184.7, 60J0L 



THE TORNADO. 

TOUGHKENAMON, 21ST OF 7TH Mo., 1877. 

Wm. D. Hartm an, M. D. 

Bear Friend : — Many thanks for thy care of Old Harry in his 
rampage. But where is thy authority for saying that cyclones 
north of the equator always go from right to left, etc ? I question 
its correctness. The observations of one eye witness are better 
than many hypotheses. Facts must not be subjected to general- 
izations. Maria's keen eye was not "in error," when she said 
11 apparently going around from left to right." Harry has left 
indubitable evidence of her correctness. After he had finished 
his vandal work at Darlington's, he had to cross an old neglected 
osage orange hedge, some twenty or thirty feet high. Its withy 
stems and hempen roots were severely tested, but resisted to the 
utmost and could not be broken. The whirl crossed the hedge 
obliquely, the bushes on the left hand being bent backward 
toward the observer, those on the right from him. To make the 
indication doubly sure, the debris of the storm which had been 
intercepted by the hedge on the left hand, was found on the 
further; and that on the right, on the near side of the obstruction. 
Please give my respects to Maria and furnish her with this con- 
firmation of the correctness of her vision, and oblige thine, 

E. MlCHENEB. 



86 AUTOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 

West Chestee, July 23, 1877. 
De. Michenee. 

My Dear Friend : — Thine of the 21st inst. received. I cannot now 
refer thee to the paper on storms in which I saw it stated by 

, bnt think it was in some of the quarto -vols, of the 

Smithsonian, that cyclones north of the equator always go from 
right to left, and south of the eqnator from left to right, owing 
to the slanting form of the earth towards the equator, this 
slant giving the direction to the wind when it strikes the 
earth. I have seen dozens of small whirl- winds since I read 
this and have invariably noticed hereabouts they always go from 
right to left, and so say all whom I have ever questioned about it. 
Your diagram convinces me that this one was no exception. I 
think Baron Humbolt was the first one to notice the direction of 
whirl- winds south of the equator. With kind regards, 

I remain thine truly, 

W. D. Haetman. 

TOUGHKENAMON, 29TH OF 7TH MO., 1877. 

Wm. D. Haetman. 

Dear Doctor : — Thy kind note is at hand. It appears to have 
been Dr. Halley who advanced the hypothesis alluded to in thy 
letter. He rightly supposed that the sun moving constantly in 
the same direction within the tropics, would produce rarefication 
of the air under and immediately after him ; that the air, so 
rarefied, would ascend and the deficiency be supplied by the cooler 
and heavier air rushing in from each side ; the lateral currents so 
formed necessarily taking an oblique direction after the sun. If 
the earth presented one uniform, even surface, this would probably 
be strictly true at all times and everywhere, but the diversity of 
land and water, of mountains and valleys, of forests and deserts 
of sand, must so much affect the rarefication of the air, and the 
motion of the currents formed as in many places to render the 
theory of difficult application, or only applicable to certain locali- 
ties. 

But whirl- winds, if I understand them, arise entirely from local 
causes. They are geographical rather than astronomical, and 
therefore are liable to be turned either to right or left by local 



EZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 87 

conditions ; nevertheless I have a strong suspicion that they are 
in a great measure electrical, and may gyrate in obedience to some 
law of electric force, perhaps unknown or imperfectly understood. 
It is a very interesting question. Thine truly. 

E. Michener. 



West Chester, 11th Mo. 10th, 1884. 
My Honored and Dear Friend : 

A mutual friend last evening handed me thy ' ' Notes on 
Tornado Forces." I opened the paper immediately and was too 
much interested to lay it down until the last line was perused. 

I was indeed much gratified at being the medium through 
whom thee has chosen to lay it before the public, and will do my 
best to do it and thyself justice. I do not think our Philosophical 
Society, as now constituted, the right one to receive it, as I feel 
assured that but one member has ever given the subject any atten- 
tion. In the Microscopical Society, however, we have members — 
Prof. Worrall, Prof. Phillips, Dr! J. C. Green and E. H. Town- 
send — who could discuss and handle the matter understandingly, 
if placed in their hands by the Society. I will cheerfully do 
whatever thee may direct, but this paper is too valuable to be 
buried out of sight. With thy permission, I should like to hold 
it for the next meeting of the Microscopical, on the first Fifth day 
in next month. That would give me time to make large copies 
of the plates. With these, thy whole paper being so thoroughly in 
accord with my own observations, beliefs and theories, I think 
there can be no misunderstanding in regard to the meaning of any 
part of thy paper. 

I would also like to have permission to send a copy to the 
Kansas City Review, a scientific monthly that has published some 
articles upon the subject. I am sure it would be glad to have it 
and would do it justice. Only last week the Signal Office at 
Washington wrote me for an account of the Ercildoun Tornado. I 
sent them a copy of R. D. 's pamphlet, and hunted my book-case 
through for a copy of thy paper on the same subject. If thee has 
a copy to spare, I would be glad to get it, as I think it should be 
filed with Darlington's. 

Affectionately thy friend, 

A. Sharpless. 



88 AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTES. 

West Chestek, 11th of 12th Mo., 1884. 
My Dear Friend : 

Thy favor of the 12th, with pamphlet, is received, for which 
accept thanks. I have already copied thy MS., so that it may 
not be soiled in the hands of the printer, should it get there. 
I do not think they should have it, unless they will have the 
figures engraved to illustrate. I have made large copies of the 
plates on drafting paper, so that they can be seen by and ex- 
plained to a room full. I think I understand thy views on the 
subject, and will do my best to lay them before our Microscopical 
Society as thee has given them, neither adding to nor taking from 
them ; but I cannot help feeling how much more gratified the 
Society would be if thee would only come and spend the evening 
with us and read the paper thyself. The Signal Office, a year or 
more ago, sent to me maps, circulars and envelopes, with an ap- 
pointment as Tornado Eeporter. Why they did so or how they 
connected me with any knowledge of the subject, I do not know. 
I have sent them two or three short papers since, all of which they 
seemed glad to receive. But I really feel that I can furnish noth- 
ing of value to them from my own personal knowledge. True I 
have, ever since listening to a lecture on storms, by Prof. Espy, 
nearly fifty years ago, taken a great interest in meteorologic 
phenomena, and have greatly enjoyed watching the majestic 
beauty and sometimes the fearful effects of some of our great 
storms. 

One First-day evening, a few weeks since, I was sitting at my 
desk writing. A moderate rain-storm was passing overhead, but 
I had noticed no thunder, when suddenly a sharp report, as a rifle- 
crack, was heard. I knew the stroke was very near, but on going 
to the door and looking out, all was dark. Next morning I found a 
maple tree at our old homestead, not a hundred yards distant 
from here, had been struck and shattered from the roots, to a 
point about level with the roof of the house, about thirty feet from 
it. I have since been very much bothered to know whether it was 
an up or down stroke, but am inclined to think it was the former. 
I have long been out of patience with our weather-wise prophets, 
who are continually sending their prognostications to the papers. 
I understand that Venner made considerable money out of it some 



EZRA MICHENER, M. D. 89 

way, probably through issuing his almanac ; so a few days since 
I wrote an article for the Local, " Weather-wise and Otherwise ;" 
I find it in to-day's paper. I think thee will agree with me. 
Some days ago I called to mind that some kind of a storm or 
tornado occurred in the southern part of Chester and Lancaster 
County, when I was yet a boy. I called upon a friend, Win. Mc- 
Cullough, who lived at that time near Oxford. In giving me his 
recollections of it, he says that it was in 1835 ; that it crossed the 
Susquehanna at Peach Bottom, passed south of Oxford, continuing 
eastward for several miles. According to his account, it was a 
tornado and very destructive. Thine truly, 

A. Shaepless. 

TORNADOES AND TORNADO FORCES. 

America has long been the home of the tornado, and 
is the proper field for the investigation of its strange 
and terrific phenomena. The sudden and unlooked- 
for disruption of a whole family of these unwelcome 
visitors in one quiet community, on the 3rd of Eighth 
month, 1885, has awakened further inquiry in many 
minds respecting the why and the wherefore. 

Leaving more facile pens to delineate their haggard 
features, I wish to inquire, or rather to incite others to 
inquire into the physical organization, the mechanical 
movements, the consecutive forces displayed by a well- 
appointed tornado. 

It appears to be the result of many observations, that 
tornadoes are generally born in the temperate climates, 
while their discordant parents belong respectively to 
the torrid and frigid zones. Thus we are taught, 
that while a strong current of cold air comes sweeping 
down from British America, across the Western States, 
it is met by an equally strong hot current from tropical 
America by way of the Gulf. When these conflicting 



go AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTKS. 

currents meet, hemmed in perhaps by the buttals of 
the Rockies, a conflict ensues. Further observations 
seem to show that the tornado begins at this point of 
contact. The earliest phenomena observed has been 
the whirling motion of a small cloud, for if there were no 
cloud present, the whirl of clear air would be invisible 
and unknown ; such is the embryo tornado. In what 
manner this motion is produced, or how far, if at all it 
is dependent upon electrical action is still unknown. 
I shall therefore assume this gyratory movement as the 
motive power, a generative force of the tornado. 
Before proceeding with the inquiry, I wish to premise, 
i st, that the analogous causes produce analogous re- 
sults, and minor forces produce minor actions. It is not 
therefore necessary to involve a whole continent to get 
up a tornado. The same relative conditions of what- 
ever extent may produce one of corresponding propor- 
tions. Thus the little dust- whirl in the foot-path is a 
tornado. The different temperatures of sun and shade 
may be the generating forces, while an ant hill may re- 
present the Rockies. 

I stood at noon- day where the ground was covered 
with dry fallen leaves. The sky was clear, the air hot 
and calm. Suddenly there was a rustling among the 
leaves. They were rapidly gathered to a central point 
from a radius of several feet, and as rapidly carried up 
in a dense whirling column to the height of some 
thirty feet. The shaft was a foot in diameter and ap- 
peared almost as if encased in a glass tube. It stood 
erect and did not seem to move. Very few, if any of 
the leaves, were thrown off laterally until they reached 
the top of the column, when they were thrown off 
horizontally and fell to the ground by their own 



EZRA MICHENKR, M. D. 9 1 

gravity. It lasted only for a few seconds. That was a 
typical tornado, and no doubt possessed, in its measure, 
all the mechanical movements of the most destructive 
storms. 

2d. I have said that a whirl of clear air would be in- 
visible, but the Gulf current, more especially, comes up 
loaded with aqueous vapor which is condensed into 
cloud material by contact with the cold air. As this 
cloud is greedily gobbled up by the whirl, it soon pre- 
sents a dark color, often the blackness of darkness. 
3d. In a clear atmosphere, the formative tornado can 
have little tendency to descend from its elevated birth- 
place, and may remain unobserved ; but if gorged 
with heavy vapor, like other floating bodies, it must 
rise or fall in obeyance to its own specific gravity and 
its own inherent forces. So in our late Chester County 
tornadoes, though they were gorged to blackness with 
watery vapor, yet, happily, the atmosphere was also 
surcharged and rendered heavier by an abundant con- 
densation, and was thus enabled to carry the storm- 
clouds so high that comparatively little damage was 
done by them, and that, mostly, on the higher points. 
I would call special attention to this feature of that 
remarkable day. 

4th. We need not suppose anything supernatural in 
a tornado ; it does not, it cannnot annul or suspend the 
general laws of matter and of motion. The two forces 
may co-ordinate and assist, or they may antagonize and 
resist each other ; but the result must, respectively, be 
the sum of the forces, or the sum] of the stronger over 
the weaker force. This relation of the forces should 
not be forgotten. 

I shall consider these forces in the following manner. 



92 AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTES. 

The whirl once started, the most of them follow con- 
secutively, yet in such quick succession as hardly to 
allow of priority. They are : 
i The Gyratory or Whirling. 

2 The Centrifugal or Tangental. 

3 Binding or Circumscribing. 

4 Ascending or Lifting. 

5 Feeding or Centripetal. 

6 Projectile or Throwing. 

7 Progressive or Travelling. 
Two others have been named : 

8 Zigzag or Swaying. 

9 Rebounding or Ricochetting. 

I. 
The Gyratory Force. 
This force, however it may be produced, appears to 
be the most destructive element of a tornado. Agent 
Findly estimated the velocity of the whirl as sometimes 
reaching 2000 miles an hour. He says, " At the centre 
of the tornado cloud," (I would prefer to say at the 
circumference, for surely in a revolving body the 
velocity will increase in the ratio of the squares of the 
distances from the axis of rotation. It is most destruc- 
tive on the right wing of the storm). 

II. 
The Centrifugal Force. 

All revolving forces necessarily generate a centri- 
fugal force, a tendency to throw off whatever it may 
contain, away from the centre to the circumference, 
leaving a more or less complete vacuum at the axis of 
the whirl. Air being a ponderable substance is thus 
affected. 



EZRA MICHENER, M. D. 93 

III. 

The Binding Force. 

The two preceding forces have a tendency to scatter 
far and wide. The binding force tends to circumscribe 
their action, and to say, "Thus far, nor farther rage, 
and here let your proud waves be stayed." 

Without this, the tornado could hardly be formed. 
It would be a barrel without hoops. Yet from whence 
is it derived ? How is it constituted ? It may be easy 
to refer it to the antagonism of the outside centripetal 
force, but the mere incidental rebuttal of the centri- 
fugal and centripetal forces would seem to be entirely 
inadequate to control such mighty force. Take the 
Ercildoun tornado. The whirl, some fifty feet in 
diameter, took up at a single gulp the lighter part of 
the brick school building, a large new frame house, 
barn, carriage house, with their contents ; and while 
lifting them about one hundred feet high, ground them 
into kindling wood in an instant, while the influx 
current was merely sufficient to throw down a few small 
trees in the near lawn. 

There is little evidence to show that any considerable 
portion of all this debris, estimated by Darlington at 
about one hundred loads, found an exit until it reached 
the top of the whirl. I again ask, from whence was 
this force derived, and how was it constituted to hold 
in abeyance all this destruction, as with massive hoops 
of iron ? Do the other forces contribute to this end, 
and in what manner ? 

IV. 

The Ascending Force. 
As the gyratory necessitates the centrifugal, so it 
also creates the ascending or lifting force by means of 



94 AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTES. 

the vacuum at the center of gyration. This highly 
rarefied and consequently lighter air is easily displaced 
and is forcibly driven upwards by the heavier air 
around the outside of the base. 

As already estimated it is not probable that a simple 
air whirl would incline to descend, but would remain 
suspended in mid-air, but when it becomes heavily 
charged with watery cloud vapor or when subjected to 
strong atmospheric disturbances it may sink to terra 
firma. There it will gobble up whatever comes in its 
path and drag its destructive course along the earth, 
pressed down by the weight of its ballast. When that 
is disgorged it will again ascend. In proof of this I 
may again refer to our Chester County tornadoes of the 
past summer. The easy ascent of the highly rarefied 
and light air in the centre of the whirling shaft at once 
necessitates the following feeding force to fill the vacu- 
ity, for " Nature abhors a vacuum." 

V. 

The Feeding Force. 

This too is a sequence of the centrifugal force. 
While the in-rushing air seeks to supply and fill the 
vacuum, it is effectually prevented from doing so. The 
centrifugal force as constantly keeps the influx air 
thrown to the circumference, leaving the vacuity intact 
to perpetuate the process. This force is variable, as the 
extent and violence of the whirl, the inequality of the 
ground and other conditions vary. It is often sufficient 
to throw down trees and other objects near its track, 
especially on the right wing and in an inward and for- 
ward direction. 



EZRA MICHENER, M. D. 95 

VI. 

The Projective Force. 

This is identical with the centrifugal force, only dif- 
ferently applied. As soon as the whirling contents of 
the cloud rise above the funnel, they are forcibly pro- 
jected horizontally all around in the direction of the 
tangents of the circle. 

In the Ercildoun tornado a very large portion of the 
debris from the Darlington place was thrown off to 
the right and forward at an angle of some thirty degrees 
from the track to a distance of fifty or more rods. Does 
the right wing possess a greater projectile force than 
the left, or was there a strong cross wind blowing up 
there at the same time ? Perhaps both. 

VII. 

The Progressive Force. 

It may be difficult to indicate an inherent progressive 
motor in a tornado, and they do appear sometimes to 
stand still at least for a time. Yet, we know fronr fear- 
ful experience that they more generally move forward, 
with great violence and to long distances. They may 
seem to be the sport of the prevailing wind, but the 
generally uniform course and strong wind in the same 
direction renders it probable that both are in some way 
controlled by the same law, which law may lie beyond 
the reach of finite observation. 

Mention has been made of two other forces, the Zig- 
zag, which is described as a lifting or sudden shifting of 
the whirl to a distance either right or left of the track. 
As there is no obvious inherent cause for this move- 
ment, it may perhaps be extrinsic, sometimes the sud- 



g6 AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTES. 

den burst of a second whirl, (see my notes on the great 
tornado, plurality of whirls, pp. 19) more often per- 
haps caused by some local impediment on one side — a 
hill, a wood, a cross current. A tornado is a congeries 
of matter in motion, and, as has been observed, must be 
subject to the physical laws of matter and of motion as 
is known to be the case with other moving bodies. 
Greater resistance on one side or on the other can 
scarcely fail to move the moving mass. 

The Ricochetting Force — an alternate ascension and 
descension. These movements seem rather to belong 
to the ascending force and have been noticed under 
that head. 

As a man's tread is made heavier when he carries a 
load, and becomes lighter when he lays it down, so it 
is with the tornado ; it will rise or fall according to the 
weight it carries, and its own impelling forces having 
relation to the specific weight of the medium in which 
it moves. Thus a tornado may be floating through the 
air at a harmless elevation until it meets some air-cas- 
tle pushed up into its horizon. In grappling with the 
obstacle it will be depressed equal to the lifting force it 
has exerted and may thus be rendered more destructive. 
The castle builder, not the tornado, is responsible for 
the mischief done. 

Conclusion. 

Perhaps there is little in these hasty and imperfect 
notes that may not be found in the miscellaneous liter- 
ature bearing upon the subject, but I am not aware of 
any systematic attempt to analyze, to separately con- 
sider, and to co-ordinate the tornado forces in accord- 
ance with the known physical laws of matter and of 



EZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 97 

motion. Such labor, imperfect as it must be, can 
hardly fail to afford a better appreciation of their co-or- 
dinate action as we witness them in the apparent confu- 
sion of the passing tornado. 

A SAD NEGLECT. 

In anticipation of the forthcoming history of Chester 
County, I felt that a rare opportunity would be pre- 
sented for Friends to rightfully vindicate their Christian 
principles, and to show the harmonizing influence which 
they happily have exerted upon the political, moral 
and religious institutions of the county and of the 
country. 

With this object in view, I corresponded with the 
authors and with various Friends, in order to enlist 
them in the work. With what success the work will 
show. The golden opportunity thus neglected may 
not soon occur again. 

West Chestee, April 21, 1879. 
Dear Sir : 

I desire to obtain some historical information which it occurs to 
me you may be able to give. 

The Chatham Inn property, as I understand, once belonged to 
Gov. McKean and afterwards to his son, Joseph B. McKean. 
What was the original name of the Inn before it was changed to 
Chatham ? I have heard it spoken as the half-way house, but 
suppose it had another name. About what period was the Inn 
first opened, and was it kept at the dwelling house on the Way tan 
yard property, now belonging to John I. Carter ? I understand 
it was moved to the present house occupied as a hotel, on the con- 
struction of the turnpike ; the name must therefore have been 
changed to Chatham before its removal, as I have understood it was 
so called by Gov. McKean previous to the breaking out of hostil- 



98 ATJTOGRAPHICAI, NOTES. 

ities, in honor of the Earl of Chatham, who favored the cause of 
the colonists. What is your information on the subject? I sup- 
pose the old Inn was on the old Gap and Newport road, is this so ? 
What information have you with regard to the ownership of the 
property by the McKean family? I should like to have any 
information on the general subj ect indicated by these queries. I 
must ask you to excuse me for troubling you with this matter but 
antiquarians are not generally very backward about asking 
questions. 

J. Smith Futhey. 



Toughke^amon, 23ed of 4th Mo., 1879. 
J. Smith Futhey. 
Bespected Friend : 

Thy note of April 21 is at hand. Although my recollections of 
the Chatham Inn go back fully seventy-five years, yet they are 
mostly such as lead me to abominate the place with its famous 
ball-alley, its character as a manufactory of black eyes and bloody 
noses, and the number of drunkards which it almost daily fur- 
nished to the highways leading therefrom. 

I have no idea that the tavern was ever kept on the Way farm 
or anywhere else than in the original stone house erected, as I sup- 
pose by Gov. McKean, and since much modified. It was undoubt- 
edly located where it now stands long before the turnpike was 
made. It was notorious at the time that the three hotels, Coch- 
ran ville, Chatham and New Garden, had much more to do in loca- 
ting the turnpike than the topography of the County. This fact 
will hardly be questioned as long as the track of the road remains 
visible across the hills. I do not know the origin or the date 
of the name, Chatham. It may have been used from the time 
specified, in certain circles, but I do not recollect to have heard it 
used in my early years. As the old Gap and Newport road was at 
that period the main, almost the only market avenue for the rich 
products of Lancaster County, the teamsters gave the place the 
cognomen of Half-way House, it being about half way between the 
two places mentioned. This is my understanding, and for many 
years I knew it by no other name. 

As I remember Chatham was not much patronized by this kind 



EZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 99 

of travel. The Conestoga teams usually stopped over night, going 
and returning, at the New Garden Inn and at what was then 
called Miller's Run (now Avondale). Sometimes as many as 
thirty would stay over night at the Run, while I have known, on 
one occasion, as many as one hundred and thirty at the tavern 
below. Happily then there was no licensed groggery at Avondale, 
though the want may have been supplied by a small grocery, as is 
still too often done. In conclusion, I feel at liberty to speak, 
though my friend, Judge Futhey, may not feel at liberty to hear, 
that circumstances do not now seem to exist requiring the 
continuance of the Chatham Inn license any more than at New 
Garden. Yet, the latter has been dispensed with for several years 
with great and obvious benefit to the neighborhood, while the for- 
mer is continued — a prolific source of destitution, demoralization 
and crime. Why is it so ? Where rests the solemn responsibility ? 
The Courts throw it upon the law, but let me ask if the Courts, 
under a full sense of their responsibility, will enquire into the 
character of the petitioners, and the legal fitness of the signers as 
respectable citizens, would they not, in very numerous instances, 
find cause to withhold license ? While I am not unmindful of the 
difficulties of the service and am more disposed to pity than to 
censure those who have the duty to perform, yet I can but trem- 
ble at the thought of the responsibility which they incur. 
Most respectfully, 

E. Michenee. 

West Chester, Pa., 6, 22, 1879. 

EZEA MlCHENER, M. D. 

Esteemed Friend : — A few days ago I sent some sheets of paper 
upon which I presumed to ask thee to write out a few facts in 
regard to the agriculture of our County in time past. Although 
farming has not been thy profession, I think thee will recall many 
things connected therewith which have come under thy observa- 
tion during a life of four score years. It is difficult to get those 
who have confined themselves closely to the labor of farming to 
give their experience in writing, and I must therefore draw upon 
others. All to whom I speak on the subject become interested 
and recall many innovations which have been made within their 



IOO AUTOGRAPHIC AI, NOTES. 

recollection. I "believe I could get a vast amount of very inter- 
esting material by going around among the old farmers, but I 
really have not the time to devote to it at present and must try to 
get my friends to put their ideas on paper themselves. This last I 
would much prefer under any circumstances, but people will be 
slow to respond. 

I .am requested to furnish something for the state report which 
I have promised to do, but wish to go into the subject deeper than 
has been intimated as the design of their publication. I think all 
would be surprised as well as interested with the result of a 
thorough investigation of our agricultural history. It is my desire 
to have papers of uniform size, that hereafter they may be bound 
together and deposited with the Historical Society or in other suit- 
able place. Hoping thee may be favorably disposed toward the 
enterprise, I close. Thy friend, 

Gilbeet Cope. 

Toughkenamon, 20th of 10 Mo., 1879. 
J. Smith Futhey. 

Respected Friend : — I have learned with much pleasure that thou 
and my friend, Gilbert Cope, are about to consummate the long- 
talked-of and anxiously looked for Histoky of Chestee County, 
but as far as I have been able to ascertain, there has been no pros- 
pectus issued, unless it may be to special canvassers for the book, 
whereby we outsiders can judge of the scope and character of the 
work. It is confidently hoped, however, that the Natural Sciences, 
for the cultivation of which our County has been somewhat noted, 
will receive an ample share of attention. It would indeed be 
treating the memory of the late Dr. William Darlington and his 
co-laborers, whose hands have ceased from their labors, with dis- 
respect were it otherwise. The early and rapid settlement of a 
large portion of the district by Friends and the simultaneous estab- 
lishment of meetings for Divine worship and schools for the proper 
education of their children, I think entitles them to more than a 
mere passing notice in the history of Chester County. Feeling a 
deep interest in this matter, I have spent a few days in preparing 
a brief notice of the meetings of the Society of Friends in our 
county, with the names of some of those worthy pioneers who 



EZRA MICHENER, M. D. IOI 

established them. It will comprise about twenty pages of MS. 
note paper. My desire to economize space has led me to condense 
the records too much. If allowable, I would gladly extend some 
of them. Truly. 

E. Michexee. 

West Chestee, Pa., Oct. 25, 1879. 
Dear Sir : 

I have received yours of the 20th inst. We got up a brief syn- 
opsis of the general plan of our history, of which I have sent you 
a copy, and it has also been published in the Local News. We 
desire to make the history as complete as possible and to give full 
credit to those who have labored in the cultivation of the natural 
sciences. Indeed our country owes much of its celebrity abroad 
to the publications of our scientists. We are also desirous of 
giving due prominence to the history of Friends in the county, 
their settlements, meetings, schools, etc. , and I am glad you are 
preparing something for us. We are in no hurry and would pre- 
fer that you do not economize space or condense in any way. We 
will have abundant room and shall be glad to receive contribu- 
tions extended enough to give proper prominence to any subject. 
Yours truly, 

J. Smith Futhey. 



TOUGHKENAMON, 2STH OF 10TH Mo. '79. 
Dear Friend : 

Thy note of 25th inst. is before me. It kindly invites contribu- 
tions for the forthcoming History of Chester County. While I 
have long labored and am willing to labor in that field, my 85th 
anniversary, now close at hand, reminds me that my day for labor 
must soon close : indeed it has already closed as far as relates to 
any active and profound research. In anticipation of this inevi- 
table result, I sat down to the task rive years ago and prepared a 
series of catalogues of the natural productions of Chester County, 
systematically arranged, and laid them away for future use. The 
series includes mammalia, birds, reptiles, fishes (defective), niol- 
lusks, crustaceans, etc., and of phenogamous plants, ferns, mosses, 
lichens and fungi, so far as known or understood to have inhabited 



102 AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTES. 

our district. The progress of natural science may require a re-ad- 
justment of these catalogues, but the material is mostly there. I 
received the prospectus and next day sat down to write a protest 
against the use of the term Quaker instead of Friend. It is well 
known that the former term was given them as a term of reproach, 
and has time and again been repudiated by the society which has 
ever accepted and used the name Friends. Jesus declared, ' l Ye are 
my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I 
call you Friends. ' ' Where, then, is the propriety of or necessity for 
continuing a derisive and spurious name for a numerous and respect- 
able religious body ? A word to the wise is sufficient. In justice 
let me say that the proper use of the name Friends in thy letter 
was very pleasant to me. Thine truly, 

E. MlCHENEE. 



West Chestee, Pa., Nov. 6, '79. 
De. E. Michenee, 

Dear Sir : — I duly received yours of the 28th. We are very 
much gratified with your offer to prepare catalogues of the nat- 
ural productions of Chester County for our history and accept it 
with our most sincere thanks. It will aid us greatly. We would 
be pleased if you would furnish the entire series, with such re-ad- 
justment as you think they require. With regard to the plan 
we desire to leave that to yourself, as your judgment will form 
a better guide than we can furnish. Will only say that I 
think the fuller and more complete they are the better, inasmuch 
as this publication of them will probably for many years be the 
source to which persons desiriug information on these subjects will 
turn. Hence I would like them to be as full and complete as 
reasonably practicable. 

With regard to the term Quaker in the prospectus, I must say 
that I did not notice it until after they were printed ; had I done 
so I would have suggested the term Friend instead. I always use 
the word in writing or speaking of the Society, and in my Histor- 
ical Collection of Chester County, published from time to time in 
the American Eepublican, I do not now recollect that I ever used 
the term Quaker, though it is possible I may have inadvertently 



KZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 103 

done so. I was educated, principally, among Friends, and have 
had a large intercourse with them in my professional career, and 
also in a social way, and I know that the term Quaker has no 
proper application. Yours truly, 

J. Smith Futhey. 



West Chester, Pa., Mae. 25, '80. 
Dr. E. Michener. 

Dear Sir : — I duly received yours of the 12th inst. I am pleased 
that Prof. Cope will furnish the Ichthyology, so that our cata- 
logue may be complete. We are certainly under great obligations 
to you for your interest in this matter, and hope you may be 
enabled to complete the lists. I know of no one who could do it so 
well, and I feel desirous also that it shall be your work. 
Yours respectfully, 

J. S. Futhey. 



West Chester, July 6, '80. 
Erra Michener, M. D. 

Dear Sir : — I have just received the manuscript containing an 
account of the sufferings of Friends during the war of the Eevolu- 
tion. The material is of a character which meets my entire 
approval for insertion in our history ; indeed, it would be incom- 
plete without such a notice and I shall gladly insert it. 
Very truly your friend, 

J. S. Futhey. 



West Chester, 8, 16, '80. 
Ezra Michener, M. D. 

Esteemed Friend : — A few days ago Judge Futhey put into my 
hands some papers which thee had sent him relating to the suffer- 
ings of Friends in Eevolutionary times. He seemed to approve of 
something of the kind being incorporated in our history, but referred 
it to me as better acquainted with the subject. I would be glad 
to see such matter published, but think it will have to be condensed 
somewhat. I have a particular desire that the attitude of Friends 
towards the Eevolution shall be correctly represented, and in fur- 



104 



AUTO GRAPHIC AI. NOTKS. 



therance of this aim will try to get a list of those who were dealt 
with for violating the discipline on the subject of war, and will 
show that but a small proportion of them assisted the English. I 
wish also to locate those who were attainted of treason and to 
ascertain whether they were largely from Quaker neighborhoods or 
otherwise. Eespectfully, 

Gilbert Cope. 



TOUGHKENAMON, 26TH OF 8TH Mo., '80. 

Respected Friend : 

Thy note of 16th inst. duly received. No doubt my list of 
sufferings may seem lengthy, yet if curtailed, it would, like 
Sampson, be shorn of its strength. The number and character of 
the sufferers, the extent of the suffering, its recurrence several 
times in the year, the character and behavior of the men who 
made the distraints, are all important factors in the case. It also 
seems necessary to show briefly how Friends view war in order to 
exhibit the grounds of their testimony against it. 

I have prepared a catalogue of the natural productions of the 
county so far as I have been able, viz : 

1. Of the Mammalians, . . . 66 species. 

231 

52 

49 

134 

37 

253 

Of the phenogamous plants that have been found since the Morula 
Cestrica was published, please add, page 140, Rudbeckia speciosa, 
(Wender) after E. laciniata. 

Page 197. — Isanthus casruleus (Michx) after Lavendula. 
" 216. — Echinospermum lappula (Linn) after Mertensia. 
" 221. — Calystegia pubescens ( ) after C. spithamaea. 

" 254. — Onopordon acanthium (Linn) after Cirsium. 
" 273. — Lobelium temulentum (Linn) after L. perenne. 

Ilysanthes pyreidaria (Pursh.) perhaps not distinct 
from I. gratioloides.- 

More than 1200 Fungi have also been collected but must be 
omitted. 

E. Michenee. 



2. 


* Birds, 


3. ' 


' Eeptiles, 


4. 


' Ferns, etc 


5. < 


t Mosses, 


6. ' 


' Hepatics, 


7. ' 


i Lichens, 



EZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 105 

Sylvania, 19th of 10th Mo., '80. 
Esteemed Friend : 

I have received the catalogue of fishes. While it is perhaps 
extra scientific, I do not quite like it. Each of our modern ichthy- 
ologist experts, Agassiz, Gill, Cope, etc., appear to have a tech- 
nology and classification of their own, agreeing, however, in using 
for their genera and higher divisions, very long, compound Dames, 
derived from the Greek and which are utterly Greek to most com- 
mon readers. 

The dwellers along our numerous streams are fishermen, and 
they have a more simple, economical ichthyology, a nomenclature 
of their own, just as they have of the quadrupeds, birds, etc., and 
it seems desirable to parallelize the two systems more fully than 
has been done. This could be improved, by a more free use of 
common names, and the addition of a very brief diagnosis of the 
families. For example : 

' ' Siluridee, ' ' add the Catfish, etc. , and so of other families. I 
do not feel competent to make the additions, and it would not be 
proper for me to do so, but if you should think it well to suggest 
the change or addition I believe it would be cheerfully made. 

Yours truly, 

E. Mich e nee. 



West Chester, 11, 3, '80. 
Dr. E. Michener. 

Respected Friend : — The list of fishes came to hand some days ago, 
and in regard to thy suggestion that it should be made more intel- 
ligible to ordinary fishermen we have concluded that if thee will 
give us the additional data we will obtain Prof. Cope's assent to 
its insertion. I would not be willing that it should go in without 
submitting the proof to him. If thee wishes the list sent back in 
order to make additional notes I will send it, or if only general 
suggestions are to be made I will communicate the substance 
thereof to Prof. Cope, with whom I am well acquainted. 

Eespectfully, 

G. Cope. 



106 AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTES. 

West Chestee, Dec. 10, '80. 
De. E. Michenee. 

Dear Sir : — We desire in our history to give a list of the books 
written or compiled by the men and women of the county. I have 
your ' ' Ketrospect ' ' and the Conchologia of yourself and Dr. Hart- 
man. You wrote a paper on weeds which I have not got, and I 
think I have seen an essay on Friends. Will you please give me 
copies of the title pages, size and number of pages of the works 
prepared by you other than the Eetrospect and Conchologia. 

Yours respectfully, 

J. S. Futhey 



Sylyaxia, 14th of 12th Mo., '80. 
J. Smith Futhey. 

Dear Friend : — After the titles of publications : 

1828. — An Appeal from Church Censure, 

1831. — An Essay on Eeligious Society. 

I860.— Eetrospect, etc. 

1862.— Brief Exposition. 

1869.— Christian Casket. 

1872.— Manual of Weeds. 

1874. — Conchologia Cestrica. 

I hope and trust that your history will notice the religious 
Society of Friends in its entirety and not in fragments. 

West Chestee, 5, 5, '81. 
De. E. Michenee. 

Respected Friend : — At the suggestion of B. M. Everhart, Harry 
Warren proposes to make some notes to the list of birds furnished 
by thee, regarding their food and some other points, but prefers to 
have thy sanction for so doing. I presume thee will not object 
to this. 

Can thee give us a brief notice of the Michener family, from the 
most remote known ancestor, showing the line down to those now 
living in this county, with some dates ? I have some data but 
presume thee has more. Eespectfully, 

G. Cope. 



EZRA MICHENER, M. D. 107 

EARLY EDUCATION AMONG FRIENDS IN 
CHESTER COUNTY. 

It is eminently proper that a historical notice of the 
primary institutions of schools in Chester County 
should commence with the labors of the religious 
Society of Friends, for they were the pioneers in the 
settlement of a large portion of the district. 

In the formation of new settlements, the first wants 
to be supplied were a place to assemble for divine 
worship, and a school for the education of their 
children. Within one year after the arrival of Wm. 
Penn, we have this result : "At a Council held in 
Philadelphia, the 20th of Tenth month, 1683, present : 

William Penn, proprietor and Governor, 

Thomas Holmes, 

William Haigue, 

Lassy Cock, 

William Clayton. 

The Governor and Provincial Council, having taken 
into their serious consideration the necessity there is for 
a school-master for the instruction and sober education 
of the youth in the town of Philadelphia, sent for 
Enoch Flower, an inhabitant of the said town, who for 
twenty years past hath been exercised in that care and 
employment in England, etc., etc." 

In order more fully to comprehend the subject, it is 
necessary to have a clear perception of the religious and 
moral principles which constitute the peculium of the 
Society of Friends. It is equally necessary to refer to 
the establishment of their meetings and schools, as has 
been alluded to, as the new settlements were pushed 
forward. 



I08 AUTOGRAPHICAIv NOTES. 

With, an abiding faith in the promise, ' ' Where two or 
three are gathered together in my name, there will I be 
in the midst of them," as they advance, the two or 
three, to open a new settlement, they immediately com- 
menced to meet together at each other's houses, in order 
to realize this promise. Holding as the great funda- 
mental principle of their faith, the immediate revelation 
of God in the soul, so abundantly experienced in the 
ages that have passed, but so strangely denied by many 
Christian professors of the present day, it is obvious that 
Friends have assumed for themselves a high ground of 
religious faith and practice, a more spiritual worship in 
agreement with the declaration that ' ' God is a spirit, and 
they who worship him must worship him in spirit and 
in truth.'' 

Friends are moreover distinguished from most other 
Christian professors, by the testimonies they have 
borne and do bear against all wars and violence and 
oppression and wrong, all excess and intemperate in- 
dulgence in the use of temporal goods and enjoyments. 

The parent is the natural protector and guardian of 
the child, appointed so to be by God himself ; and as it 
is the duty of the parent to serve God aright, so it is 
his duty faithfully to instruct and train the child in the 
same path of religious duty. " Train up a child in the 
way he should go, and even when he is old he will not 
depart from it." Duty to the child is duty to God. 

Such were the men, such were the religious sentiments 
and the moral principles which instituted and controlled 
the first schools over a large portion of Chester County. 
Why should it have been thought strange that these 
schools should have been kept under the surveillance of 
their founders and devoted to give their children the 



EZRA MICHENER, M. D. IO9 

benefit of " a guarded religious and moral education ' ' 
as they understood it? They would have been shame- 
fully derelict of duty not to have done so. But the 
idea does not seem to have been used in a proselyting 
disposition, for, although the schools were open to and 
patronized by all classes, it does not appear that the 
peculiar tenets of the Society w 7 ere specially inculcated 
and enforced upon any. 

For a time, these small and often isolated brother- 
hoods necessarily had to manage their own affairs ; but 
as their numbers increased, they came more under the 
disciplinary care of the Society. Thus in 1746, the 
Yearty Meeting advised as follows : 

"We desire } t ou, in your several monthly meetings, 
to encourage and assist each other in the settlement and 
support of schools for the instruction of your children, 
at least to read and write, and some further useful learn- 
ing ; and that you observe as much as possible to em- 
ploy such masters and mistresses as are concerned, not 
only to instruct your children in their learning, but are 
likewise careful in the wisdom of God and a spirit of 
meekness to gradually bring them to a knowledge of 
their duty to God and to one another, and we doubt 
not such endeavors will be crowned with success." 

Passing over much earnest practical advice in rela- 
tion to the settlement of schools from year to year, in 
1778 it was advised — 

' ' That in the compass of each monthly meeting, w 7 here 
the settlement of a school is necessary, a lot of ground 
be provided sufficient for a garden, or orchard, grass for 
a cow, etc., and that a suitable house, stable, etc., be 

provided thereon Such a provision would 

be an encouragement for a staid person with a family, 



HO AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTES. 

who would be likely to remain a considerable time — 
perhaps his whole life — to engage therein. If to what 
has been proposed, Friends were willing to add the 
promotion of a subscription fund, the increase of which 
might be employed in paying the master's salary if 
necessary, and promoting the education of the poorest 
children of Friends, etc. 

We recommend to the Quarterly and from thence 
to the Monthly and Preparative Meetings, that the 
former advices of collecting a fund for the establishment 
and support of schools, under the care of the standing 
committee, appointed by the Monthly and Preparative 
Meeting should take place, etc." 

In accordance with these advices very many of the 
meetings provided ample funds for school purposes, 
which are still applied in that way. It is worthy of 
remark that these measures were brought up during 
the revolutionar}^ contest, when Friends were exposed 
to the most excessive distraints of property on account 
of military requisitions. 

Friends sometimes opened schools for the convenience 
of those who lived too remote to attend the meeting 
schools. Thus Friends at West Grove built a school 
house on the Chatham road, near Pyles' Run. The 
school was taught by the elder Wm. Jackson. When 
the meeting house was built in 1787, the school house 
was moved thereto. 

The amount of the school funds, their appropriation 
and general management, must be sought in the records 
of the respective Monthly Meetings. Our space is so 
circumscribed that a single instance must suffice. 

In accordance with these advices, as early as 1787, I 
find Kennett Monthly Meeting prepared a series of nine 



EZRA MICHENER, M. D. Ill 

rules for the use of its Preparative Meetings in raising a 
fund for the promotion of schools therein. The fifth of 
these rules provides : 

"The Trustees shall, as soon as they see occasion, 
apply the interest arising from this fund to schooling 
the children of such poor people, whether Friends or 
others, as live within the verge of the Monthly Meet- 
ing, provided that such children comply with the rules 
of the school." 

This plan of procedure, considerably modified, was 
received and acted upon by Marlborough Preparative 
Meeting, 3d of Eighth month, 1803, viz. : 

Sec. 1. That a fund be raised in each of our Prepara- 
tive Meetings, and three or more Trustees and a Treas- 
urer be appointed by that Monthly Meeting, to each of 
them to have the care and management of their respec- 
tive funds, who are to be called and known by the name 
of the Trustees and Treasurer of the School Fund of 
Centre, Kennett, Hockessin and Marlborough Prepara- 
tive Meetings. 

Sec. 2. That a book be provided by each Treasurer, 
wherein each subscriber is to sign a bill or note drawn 
in the name of the Treasurer at five per cent, per 
annum, interest. The principal so subscribed for is 
not to be called for during the subscriber's life time or 
residence within the verge of the Monthly Meeting ; but 
a part or the whole may at any time be paid, for which 
each subscriber so paying is to have credit given. 

Sec. 3. Each Treasurer is also to provide another 
book, wherein he is to keep a regular account of the 
names of all children schooled, and of all expenditures 
on that and other accounts relative to the said fund. 

Sec. 4. The interest which may arise from said fund 



112 AUTOGRAPHICAE NOTES. 

is to be applied to the schooling and accommodating 
Friends' children, or toward paying the salaries of 
school masters or school mistresses, as the trustees may 
think Friends' situation or circumstances may require, 
and for no other purpose but with the consent or direc- 
tion of the Preparative Meetings respectively. 

All monies paid by the Trustees, is to be by written 
orders from the respective Trustees or a majority of 
them, who are to meet every three months or oftener, as 
they may find occasion. 

Sec. 5. The interest arising from the said funds is 
to be paid to the Treasurer in the Twelfth month 
yearly. The Treasurer and Trustees are to lay their 
accounts and proceedings before the Preparative Meet- 
ing, in order that they may be laid before the Monthly, 
in the First month, yearly, to which or to the next 
monthly, the Preparative Meetings are to propose 
Trustees and a Treasurer for the ensuing year. 

Sec. 6. The Treasurer is to call in all sums of money 
which may fall into the hands of executors or adminis- 
trators; or such sums as may be in the hands of such 
subscribers as may be about to remove their residence 
out of the verge of the Monthly Meeting, and with the 
advice and direction of. the Trustees or a majority of 
them, is to put out, in safe hands, at the aforesaid rate 
of interest, all such sums and all other sums belonging 
to the said fund which may have been paid in to them. 

Sec. 7. No part of the principal is to be made use of 
at any time, except by direction of the Monthly Meet- 
ing, and then only for the purpose of raising an annuity, 
purchasing land and making provision for the accom- 
modation of school masters and school mistresses. 

The records of the Preparative Meetings show 7th of 



KZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. II3 

Twelfth month, 1803, " Friends are requested to enter 
into a subscription, etc. ;" and on the 4th of First 
month, 1804, " it appears that Friends have subscribed 
the sum of five hundred and seventy-six dollars. ' ' The 
Meeting proposed Joseph Barnard, Enoch Wickesham 
and David Chalfant as Trustees, and Richard Barnard, 
Jr., as Treasurer. 

At a Preparative Meeting, held 1st of Second month, 
1826, a committee which had been appointed "to con- 
sider the best mode of disposing of the increase of the 
school fund, etc.," reported as their judgment, "that 
the rising generation would be benefited and the 
object of the Society promoted by an encouragement to 
and provision for a teacher of a settled character, and 
suitable qualification to engage in the school. With 
this view of the subject, we are free to propose that 
about two acres of land adjoining the Meeting house 
lot be purchased and a convenient house erected there- 
on, and that for this purpose such part of the fund may 
be appropriated as may be found sufficient. ' ' 

These suggestions were adopted and the plan fully 
carried out. In 1830, a resident teacher was employed, 
who was continued in charge of the school up to 1851, 
a period of twenty-one years. The school property, in- 
cluding the fund, may now be worth over three thou- 
sand dollars. 

As an appendix to these notes, the following care- 
fully prepared list of the times and places where 
the meetings of Friends were first held in Chester 
County and parts adjacent, apart from its own intrinsic 
value, affords a proximate record of the first or primary 
schools of the Society of Friends therein. A few meet- 
ings, mostly temporary, have been omitted : 



ii4 



AUTOGRAPHIC AI< NOTES. 



In 1675, Chester. 

1682, Darby. 
Merion. 

" Haverford. 
Radnor. 

1683, Chichester. 

1684, Newark. 

1686, Concord. 

1687, Centre. 
1696, Newtown. 

' ' Springfield. 
" Middletown. 
1696, Providence. 

1703, Goshen. 

1704, Birmingham. 
1707, Kennett. 
171 2, New Garden. 
1 7 14, London Grove. 
1716, E. Cain. 

The numerous meeting 
In the Society of Friends, 



In 1 7 16, Bradford. 
1720, Uwchlan. 
1724, Sadsbury. 

1728, Columbia. 

1729, Lampeter. 

1730, Hockessin. 
1738, Wilmington. 
1755, Lancaster. 
1767, Willistown. 
1772, Staunton. 
1787, West Grove. 
1792, Fallowfield. 
1798, Marlborough. 
1805, Doe Run. 
1820, Penn's Grove. 

" Bart. 

1828, Oxford. 

1838, Mill Creek. 

1845, Unionville. 
s, resulting from the division 
are not included in the list. 



CONSIDERATIONS ON THE GRANTING OF 

LICENSES TO SELL INTOXICATING 

DRINKS, 1879. 

It had for many }^ears been a growing source of dis- 
satisfaction that the practice of our courts, in granting 
tavern licenses, was not in accordance with the spirit of 
the license laws, nor in harmony with the progressive 
public sentiment in favor of temperance. 

Four years ago, (1875) Judge Butler, of this County, 



EZRA MICHENER, M. D. 115 

feeling no doubt the pressure of this dissatisfaction, 
gave an exposition of the practice of the court in the 
premises. (See West Chester Local News, May 19th, 

1875); 

This exposition led me to prepare a series of critical 
notes on the subject, which appeared in subsequent 
issues of the same paper. As the cause for complaint 
still exists, I have been induced to repeat them in an 
amended form, with some additions. 

Believing that Chester was as ably represented in her 
judicial appointments, as any of her sister counties, I 
accepted the proceedings of Judge Butler as a fair 
standard of court practice for the State, with the express 
understanding that my strictures were not personal, but 
general. 

Judges are, like other men, fallible. They too are 
creatures of circumstances. They become habituated 
to particular modes of thought in the construction of 
laws, and to special forms of procedure in their ad- 
ministration. By too close an adherence to those tra- 
ditional methods, the progress of intellectual, moral and 
religious improvement may be seriously hindered, and 
the good purpose of the law, frustrated. I shall en- 
deavor to show that such has been, and is, the fact in 
regard to the granting of tavern licenses. 

Language, like -all human productions, is imper- 
fect, often indefinite, and in lapse of time, changes 
its manner of meaning and consequently its use. Even 
the terse language of Law, with all its technicalities, 
frequently admits of various, and even conflicting con- 
structions, and thus affords an abundant supply of 
pabulum leg alts for the lawyers. 

Laws, like the Scriptures, may be said to possess 



Il6 AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTKS. 

both a literal and a spiritual meaning, and like them, 
the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. Lawyers 
may wrangle about the letter, but it is the solumn duty 
of the judge to diligently seek for and inflexibly main- 
tain the spirit of the law, which is Justice. Justice to 
man, and to God. 

We can not fail to perceive that the license laws 
were in their inception strongly preventive, and restric- 
tive, and only permissive in toleration of the general 
sentiment in favor of what has been called moderate 
drinking. Both in their inception and their applica- 
tion they were strictly and essentially a temperance 
measure, designed to prevent the disorders, the drunken- 
ness, and the dangers resulting from the unrestricted 
sale of liquors. They restricted the privilege to sell 
to a few persons who must be certified by twelve 
" reputable citizens," to be " of good repute for honesty 
and temperance," under many and stringent regula- 
tions ; and this was done for the declared purpose of 
providing safe and comfortable accommodations for 
strangers and travellers. The compensation from these 
were intended to afford a remuneration. 

The spirit of the law still seeks to promote the same 
benevolent object, but the letter has been shamefully 
prostituted by a corrupt legislature, and a too servile 
judiciary, to the unholy purpose of filling the coffers 
of a few demoralized rum sellers, and possibly their 
own, to the serious detriment of the whole community. 
The letter has thus been permitted to take the ascen- 
dency. Indeed, a mighty change has come over us : a 
change in the modes of conveyance ; a change in the 
lines of travel ; a change in the habits of the people. 
These changes have superseded the necessity for many 
of the licensed houses of entertainment, and cut off the 



EZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 117 

legitimate means for their support. Unhappily, with 
these, there has been a change of purpose, for which 
licenses have been sought for and granted ; a change of 
legislation and a change of court practice. Hence the 
same old houses, with a host of new births, continue to 
be licensed, and for what ? Too often, it would seem, 
to become mere tippling houses, manufactories of 
drunkards, manufactories of paupers, manufactories of 
criminals, to replenish our poor-houses and jails, and to 
furnish victims for the gallows. The records of the 
institutions named, everywhere, bear ample testimony to 
these facts. 

"Say Keason, say, 
When will thy long minority expire ? 
When will thy dilatory Kingdom come ? ' ' 

We are often reminded that civilization is progres- 
sive ; that the intellectual, the moral, the religious 
faculties of man's nature are being constantly more and 
more developed. That poor humanity is rising up from 
her polluted bed, regenerated, and fitted for a higher 
and a holier sphere. This boasted progress should in- 
spire the cheering hope that the sale of intoxicants will 
yet be more and more restricted, until it will only be 
allowed across the druggist's counter for strictly medi- 
cinal and art purposes. When it will only be found on 
the shelves by the side of arsenic, strychnia and 
atropia ; and when, like them, it will be indellibly 
stamped with the same cautionary label — Poisox. 
When both the seller and buyer will be held to a strict 
account for every overt or covert violation of their trust. 
But when ! O, when, will this consummation, so 
devoutly to be wished for, be accomplished ? When ! 
O when ! 



Il8 AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTES. 

In considering this question, it must ever be remem- 
bered that the license plan was introduced to remedy 
the many evils of intemperance, by those who were 
themselves very generally addicted to what they 
modestl} 7 called — moderate drinking. We need not, 
therefore, wonder that the measure was imperfect and 
liable to abuse. No plan can be considered perfect 
which is not based on totai, abstinence. 
(1710). — "Whereas, a great abundance of taverns and 
of public houses, for the vending of spirituous 
liquors, have been found to promote habits of idle- 
ness and debauchery 7 , to the end that the number 
thereof be determined by the measure of real utility 
and necessity, be it enacted — 
That no person shall hereafter keep an} 7 public inn, 
tavern, ale-house, tippling-house, dram-shop, vict- 
ualing-house, or public house of entertainment, un- 
less such person shall first be recommended by the 
Justices in the respective count} 7 courts, etc." 
It was the express purpose of the law to constitute 
the Courts guardians of the public weal, and to see 
that none should be recommended whose known 
character is not worthy of their confidence, and to take 
care that the number be kept within the limits ' ' of real 
utility and necessity." 

(1710, 1794, 1856). — "Ever} 7 person intending to apply 
for license shall file with the clerk of the court of 
quarter sessions, his, or her petition, three weeks be- 
fore forwarding the same to the court ; and the said 
clerk shall cause notice thereof to be published three 
times in two of the newspapers of the county, in case 
of hotels, inns, taverns and eating-houses. The 
petition shall embrace a certificate signed by at least 



EZRA MICHENER, M. D. II9 

twelve reputable citizens of the township, setting- 
forth that the same is necessary to accommodate the 
public and entertain strangers and travellers ; and 
that such person is of good repute for honesty and 
temperance, and is well provided with house room 
and conveniences for the accommodation of strangers 
and travellers." 

The license laws give the courts ample discretionary 
power to execute the guardianship confided to them. 
(1834). — " No court shall license any person to keep an 
inn or tavern, unless from the petition and certificate, 
or from their own knowledge, or from evidence 
sought for and obtained, they shall be satisfied of 
the fitness of the person and the sufficiency of the ac- 
commodations . " 
(1856). — "The courts shall fix by rule, or standing 
order, a time at which the applications for license 
shall be heard, at which time all persons applying or 
making objections, may be heard, by evidence, peti- 
tion, remonstrance, or counsel." 

The license law, as here sketched, may be called the 
Pennsylvania Law Temperance Society. True, it 
necessarily wanted the crushing lever of total absti- 
nence, for the material did not then exist. Neverthe- 
less, so long as it retained its stalwart builders, it was 
an engine of tremendous power. But so soon as it was 
discovered that moderate drinking meant moderate 
drunkenness, with a notable assurance that it would 
soon develop into gutter drunkenness, the legislature 
craftily turned the whole concern over to the whiskey 
league, who had just then announced itself to be the 
only genuine and effective temperance society in ex- 
istence. Alas ! how often do we see those magnates of 



120 AUTOGRAPHICAIv NOTES. 

law ; men ' ' of good repute for honesty and temper- 
ance, ' ' endeavoring to draw the unwary to their houses 
by a prominent horse race, fox hunt, or base ball ; any- 
thing to draw the young, the idle, the profligate, to 
their bar. The ' ' reputable citizens ' ' who signed the 
certificate, often seen in the forefront of the crowd. 

How often do we see our courts continue to give 
licenses to men " of good repute for honesty and tem- 
perance," until it is at last found on the brink of a 
drunkard's grave, into which its possessor had just 
fallen. Say, ye ermined conservators of the public 
weal, are the disgraceful and revolting scenes of drunk- 
enness, profanity and obscenity so often witnessed in 
and about our licensed groggeries, proper places to ac- 
commodate the public, or are they places of safety and 
comfort, such as the law contemplates to entertain 
strangers and travellers ? I think not. 

But it is time to hear what the courts say on this 
matter, on the occasion already referred to (1875). 
Judge Butler said : " The facts were in the papers of 
each case, and on them they would rely in determining 
the cases." 

' ' Where license had been once granted, and there 
was no remonstrance now, they would grant license." 
Prima facie evidence. 

" Remonstrances of general character they would not 
entertain, but directed them to be filed in the clerk's 
office." 

Now it must be remembered that there were from 
seventy-five to one hundred applicants for license, each 
with their twelve or more signers, aggregating more than 
one thousand persons. The court might be supposed 
to know — perhaps did know — from personal acquaint- 



EZRA MICHENER, M. D. 121 

ance, that among those whose names were presented 
there, were petitioners who were not in "good repute 
for honesty and temperance," signers who were not 
"reputable citizens," and localities where houses 
were not necessary to ' ' entertain strangers and travel- 
lers." If the court was not informed on these points, it 
would seem to have been its duty to become so, for on 
this knowledge rests the whole power to grant licenses. 
The law is imperative : 

i ' No court shall license any person to keep an inn or 
tavern, unless from the petition and certificate, or 
from their own knowledge, or upon evidence sought 
for and obtained, they shall be satisfied of the fitness 
of the person, and the sufficiency of the accommoda- 
tions." 

Indeed everybody, except the court, seems to be 
aware that falsehoods are too often substituted for facts 
in ' ' the papers, ' ' and that, in many cases, both petitioner 
and signers are legally incompetent. 

It is therefore neither warrantable nor safe for the 
court to rely upon the papers alone ; nor can they safely 
refuse to admit evidence of whatever kind. Yet in this 
instance, a remonstrance, signed by nearly four-fifths of 
the citizens of the Borough of Oxford, was thrown 
aside because it was only a temperance remonstrance of 
a general character. 

The law does not so discriminate ; it is the court 
which discriminates, and who prescribes every person 
who is willing thus to avow temperance principles, but 
does not wish to impugn the personal character" of his 
neighbor. 

It is more than thirty years since a man, who for the 
last year had kept a temperance house, again petitioned 
for whiskey license. His application was met by a 



J 22 AUTOGRAPHICAIv NOTES. 

remonstrance signed by sixty-nine of his immediate, 
votable neighbors, and by two hundred and thirty 
women, many of whom had drained the bitter cup of 
misery and want to its dregs by reason of those who 
should have been their support and protection, having 
been demoralized and brutalized by the liquors sold at 
that same house under previous license, and earnestly 
imploring the court not to renew the cause of their des- 
titution and sufferings ; but it was of no avail. A com- 
mittee of five, who subsequently addressed a note of 
inquiry to Judge Bell in relation thereto, received a 
severe reprimand, charging them with a dangerous and 
alarming attempt to interfere with the judicial action 
of the court, and to tarnish the purity of its ermine. 

Admit that the granting of licenses is a judicial act, 
it might have taxed the ingenuity of Judge Bell to 
show how this procedure could be construed an interfer- 
ence with the action of the court long after that action 
had been performed. But the reply was, that the 
granting of liquor licenses is not a judicial function. 

Judge Butler spoke of having received letters, pend- 
ing the granting of licenses on one side or the other. 
To address such letters, he remarked, ' ' was a mistake, 
or worse. ' ' Though not fully defined, it seems to refer 
to the same interference with judicial practice, and ob- 
tained the same answer. 

Only three weeks ago, (May 3rd, 1879) Judge 
Watson, of Bucks County, seems to have taken still 
stronger ground, and comes well nigh denying to us the 
right of remonstrance altogether. Attorney I^ear pre- 
sented a remonstrance from Buckingham, signed by two 
hundred and eight voters and three hundred and thir- 
teen women, praying that no license for the sale of 
intoxicating liquors be granted in that township. 



EZRA MICHENKR, M. D. 1 23 

After reading the petition, Mr. L,ear said: "The 
court is directed, by the Acts of Assembly, to hear any 
person for or against licenses. The remonstrances may 
appear in person or by counsel. Mr. Eastburn and my- 
self have been employed to present the views of the re- 
monstrants. The Act of 1875, provides that the court 
may grant licenses. It authorizes the court to hear any 
person applying for, or objecting to, applications for 
licenses. In the exercise of their discretion the courts, 
in certain counties of the commonwealth, have restricted 
the number of licenses granted. In Washington 
County, I was told by Mr. L,awrence, a few years ago, 
there were but two licenses granted. I am informed 
that there are none in it now. Upon inquiry why that 
was so, he said that the sentiment of the county was 
against it, and the court, in deference to that public 
sentiment, had restricted the number to two. In Potter 
county there are no licenses granted at all, for the 
same reason. The only way by which the feelings and 
wishes of the community can be brought before the 
court is in this manner. The "voters and ladies of 
Buckingham have a right to have their sentiments on 
this question presented here, and whenever the court 
ascertains that it is the wish of a very considerable 
portion of the respectable people of the community that 
no license should be granted, then in deference to their 
wishes, and to that public sentiment, it should withhold 
the licenses." 

To this Judge Watson made the following extraordi- 
nary and censorious reply : 

"I do not know whether you have considered the 
propriety of presenting a remonstrance of this kind. 
It probably has not struck you in the same manner that 



124 AUTO GRAPHIC AL« NOTES. 

it appears to the court. I have so often expressed 
myself in regard to the duties of the court, in the matter 
of granting licenses, that I should think that the posi- 
tion of the cotirt ought, by this time, to be understood ; 
yet, it seems that it is not, and as if it was necessary to 
explain it over and over again. 

A judicial officer is an officer of the law. He is bound 
to perform such duties and such acts as the law imposes 
upon him, no matter what may be his own private, 
individual opinion, as to the propriety of that law and 
the acts which it directs him to perform. Among these 
duties is that of granting licenses for taverns, wherever 
the accommodation of the public requires them, for the 
entertainment of strangers and travellers. It matters 
not what I think of the propriety of selling or using 
intoxicating liquors. When petitions of this kind are 
presented to the court, our duty can not be regarded in 
that way b} T the worthy people whose names are signed 
to them. Although they do not so intend, yet it seems 
to me as if the}^ were asking me to violate my official 
oath, to refuse to perform a duty which the law imposes 
on me. This is the way I regard it, and I can not 
regard it otherwise." — Bucks County Intelligencer, 
May ?th, iSyp. 

There seems to be much harmony both in principles 
and in practice among the courts so far, and our new 
Judge Futhey seems to be an apt scholar, as I do not 
learn that in his prentice effort he found more than 
one spotted sheep out of the whole flock, and that so 
easil} r rubbed off as to entitle the wearer to an eating- 
house license. They all seem to fall spontaneous^ into 
the same errors or misconceptions of their position and 
their duties, in relation to the granting of liquor licenses. 



KZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 1 25 

Perhaps we do not need a further repetition of the 
many homilies we have had on the duty of the courts to 
grant licenses ; we understand that pretty well. But we 
wish you now to consider your duty to withhold the 
license asked for. 

You have unfortunately failed to perceive that every 
feature of the license law, from its earliest inception, 
was strictly and entirely prohibitory and restrictive, 
not in anywise conducive to the sale of liquors, and it 
need not require very profound legal acumen to dis- 
cover that the duties which a restrictive law imposes 
upon the courts must themselves be restrictive. In the 
case already alluded to before Judge Bell, the only 
privilege sought was a license to sell liquors, for he 
already possessed all the rest ; yet the court granted the 
privilege on the certificate of twelve men, one of whom 
was himself a licensed whiskey seller, and five of the 
remainder were common drunkards in their neighbor- 
hood, and had doubtless been made so at the house they 
recommended, and this in total disregard of a remon- 
strance signed by two hundred and ninety-nine of the 
more intelligent and moral portion of his neighbors. 

The remonstrance from Oxford, four years ago, and 
that from Buckingham, already mentioned, are cases 
equally in point. In all those instances, whether it was 
' ' sought for ' ' or not, there was, or might have been, 
sufficient evidence ' ' obtained, ' ' under a proper con- 
struction of the law, to have led to very different results. 

The courts fail to perceive their true position, under 
the license law, as the appointed guardians of morality, 
temperance and good order ; and not in the least con- 
ducive to the sale of intoxicating liquors. They con- 
sequently fail to feel the solemn responsibility which 



126 AUTOGRAPHICAI. NOTKS. 

rests upon them whenever they step beyond the 
restrictions of the law, ' ( the measure of real utility and 
necessity." 

The courts sympathize with, and seek an apology for 
rum-sellers who have violated the law. Judge Butler 
said, ' ■ They did not think it proper to refuse license to 
respectable men, who had been convicted during Local 
Option, of selling liquors." * * "These men had 
been punished severely." * * "But they had not 
broken the confidence especially reposed in them by the 
court. " * * " Besides it was very likely that many 
others had as greatly violated the law ; while some of 
those convicted were among the most reputable men of 
the county." 

This sounds more like the limp excuse of a pettifog- 
ging lawyer at the bar, than the exposition of the case 
from the bench. I have no personal knowledge of the 
"reputable men " alluded to, nor do I know the court 
standard of respectability, but have said that the 
meaning, and consequently, the use of words, change. 
Webster, as a standard, does not associate "violators of 
law, " " severe punishments , " " forfeiture of legal 
rights," etc., with the characteristics of the "most re- 
spectable men." But great men err, and books become, 
obsolete. I have not the later authorities. 

But others may have violated the law, sure enough. 
Then why punish some so severely, and allow others to 
escape ? Would you hang one poor miscreant who had 
been convicted of murder, while a hundred other scape- 
gallows murderers are running at large ? The trifling 
circumstance of his being caught certainly does not add 
anything to his crime. Then why this partiality? 
Why not give him a certificate of respectability and 
set him free until all the scape-goats shall be caught ? 



EZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 127 

But those respectable law-breakers ' ' had not broken 
the confidence reposed in them by the court ! ! ! " Very 
true ; and for the meritorious reason that Jack did not 
eat his supper. The court had not reposed any con- 
fidence in them ! ! ! 

This extraordinary plea for the violation of law 
brings us a new revelation, and teaches us the vast 
difference there is between violating the law and break- 
ing the confidence of the court, at least in the opinion of 
Judge Butler. 

HEREDITY OF DRUNKENNESS. 

Permit me to call your attention to the subject of 
Heredity in relation to drunkenness, or the transmis- 
sion of the physicial and mental faculties, features and 
conditions of the parent, to his offspring ; whether those 
conditions may be natural and healthy, or acquired and 
morbific. 

It seems to be admitted that all vitalized or living 
beings, whether belonging to the animal or to the 
vegetable kingdom, are the joint result of a fertilizing 
and a fertilized parent. However much the means may 
differ, there seems to be one general law of reproduc- 
tion for the whole series of animated existence. 
Heredity has been studied by the floriculturist, the 
horticulturist, the agriculturist, and the stock-farmer ; 
or rather, they have accepted, and acted upon the con- 
clusions of the scientist for the improvement of their 
respective callings. And the physicians, more than 
all these, have studied it in relation to hereditary 
diseases, but, strange to tell, the People, if not ignor- 
ant, are at least neglectful of its teachings ; they seem 
oblivious to the fact that the law of heredity, 



128 AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTES. 

"1,1KB BEGETS ITS UKE," 

Is continually in operation, and too often produc- 
ing the most disastrous results, even in their im- 
mediate households and more intimate family circles. 
My purpose is to endeavor to awaken a deeper atten- 
tion to this important subject, and to show its intimate 
and fearful bearing upon the temperance question. 

Heredity is more easily observed and studied in the 
human family. We can better understand and appre- 
ciate the transmitted features of the parents, as they 
manifest themselves in the children, than among the 
lower orders. I shall therefore draw my illustrations 
from our own race. I have already alluded to the law 
of reproduction requiring two parents, and you are all 
familiar with the reappearance of their characteristic 
features in the child. Some fine physicial form, or 
brilliant mental faculty, or perchance, - the fatal blush 
of consumption, or the leper spot of cancer. How is 
this effected ? 

We cannot tell ; but the facts are well known. Nine 
times out of ten the gossip of the birth-chamber will 
soon tell you what of the features, and of which parent 
the new birth bears the semblance ; and after years, 
will more deeply impress the likeness of the one or the 
other. Let me remind you, that as the mental facul- 
ties can only be manifested by, and through the 
physicial organism, it would seem to be the organiza- 
tion that is hereditary. 

As color perhaps affords the most easily observed ex- 
ample of heredity, I will use it for my illustration. 
We already have the acknowledged fact, that where one 
parent is white, and the other black, the child will be a 
mulatto. No one doubts that. 



EZRA MICHKNER, M. D. I 29 

When a woman of fair complexion marries a fairly 
black man. she may live with him for half a century 
and her fair skin w T ill receive no tarnish that ordinary 
soap would not remove — provided, that she should es- 
cape maternity. But if that should occur, she will be 
found to have become slightly bronzed during its con- 
tinuance, and which Ivory soap 99yVo pure will not re- 
move. And each subsequent maternal period, however 
frequent, will give her another and an increasingly deeper 
shade, until she has acquired the color of a quadroon, 
with the features of a w r hite woman. After she has 
thus become party-colored, she too begins to impart of 
her acquired color to the embryo, while her whiten- 
ing influence is diminished ; consequently, each suc- 
cessive child will present a darker shade. This differ- 
ence in color is easily observed. 

The service of the Philadelphia Dispensary, sixty- 
seven years ago, afforded me several observations of 
this kind. The peculiar contrast of features and color 
led me to suspect, and challenge, the women with hav- 
ing colored husbands, and I was not mistaken. One of 
them afterwards obligingly brought her three children 
to show how they successively became darker. 

At a later period, 1847, I visited the Indian settle- 
ment at Cattaraugus, N. Y. I there found Maris 
Peirce, a well educated Indian chief, married to a very 
worth}- New England lady, who had come among them 
as a teacher. She had probabfy enhanced her useful- 
ness by thus fully identifying herself with them. They 
were surrounded by a family of children. The mother 
was almost as much an Indian in color as in her family 
associations. The graded colors of the children were 
equally well pronounced. The severe illness of one of 



130 AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTES. 

her children, and my opportune professional service for 
several days, afforded ample opportunity for observa- 
tion. 

In order to solve this color problem, we must recur to 
our married couple. During maternity, the mother 
and embryo are both fed and nourished by the same 
current of mixed elementary coloring, but in very un- 
equal proportions. Let their weights represent their 
respective color elements — say one hundred and sixty 
pounds, and eight pounds ; but the latter is half white, 
and must go to the mother. The account with them 
stands T £ ¥ or ^ r as the proportion of color left in her 
system. This, when several times repeated, becomes 
quite conspicuous. 

Now there is no doubt, indeed you witness it con- 
tinually, that other, perhaps all other, conditions of 
parental organism may be transmitted in the same 
manner as color ; first to the embryo, and through it to 
the mother. This presents a gloomy prospect to many 
a worthy female, and bespeaks necessity for greater 
caution than they sometimes observe in respect to their 
family relations. Such is Heredity. 

With these ideas so hastily rendered, fresh in your 
memories, let me lead you to the wretched abode of the 
drunkard. Yon dismal looking creature, skulking 
away in a corner to escape observation, was but yester- 
day a brilliant and accomplished youth ; the comfort 
and pride of his parents and friends ; the hope and 
promise of all that is noble, and great, and good, in 
man. Now, the noble bearing of his manhood is gone ; 
his appetites and passion, the whole physical man, is 
imbruted ; his brain, thrice case-hardened in alcohol, 
no longer responds to the finer demand of intellect, and 



KZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 131 

you see only the dilapidated remains of what he once 
was. 

And what was the cause of all this ruin? Noth- 
ing ; only that he drank a little wine, and a little 
brandy ; and a little more ; and a little more ; and a 
little more ; and you witness the heart-sickening re- 
sults. 

The story does not end here. He gains the affections 
of a young woman who was every way worthy of his 
highest aims, and overcame her fears and hesitancy by 
plighting his faith and honor to renounce the fatal 
bowl, now and forever ; but his vows were soon broken. 
There, too, you see the semblance of a woman. She 
also seeks to hide her pale and emaciated form beneath 
her scant and tattered garments. Her every feature 
bespeaks humiliation, destitution, and a broken heart. 
On a pallet of straw by her side lies a little girl, sick, 
and dying, for the want of that which she is unable to 
supply ; while a younger babe is vainly endeavoring to 
draw nutriment from a bosom already drained of every- 
thing but a mother } s love. If this is drunkemiess, does 
not ten thousand — yes, a hundred thousand such cases, 
afford a valid plea for Prohibition ? Still, we must 
bide our time and await the tardy progress of Reform. 

In the meantime, if I could raise my trumpet voice 
so loud, I would say to every young woman in the 
land who are by nature, and of right, candidates for 
matrimony : Is it not your duty, as it is your interest, 
to prohibit every advance, from whatever quarter, that 
looks towards you becoming the wives of drunkards, 
and the mothers of their degenerate children? This 
would afford immediate Prohibition of the most prac- 
tical kind. Try it. 



132 autographicaiv notes. 

The Conclusion. 

Heredity is readily acknowledged in its more palpable 
forms of consumption, cancer, insanity, and that curse 
of curses, syphilis. But the law is so broad, and its 
terms are so exacting, that there is probably no morbid 
condition, physical and mental, that is exempt from its 
penalties. We are all willing to anticipate the repro- 
duction of the noble form, the comely features, the 
bright intellect of the parent in the child ; why then 
should we ignore the recurrence of the less pleasing 
features ? 

It is now well understood that alcohol, even in that 
innocent form — the moderate use of it — does produce 
serious and lasting morbid conditions, both physical 
and mental, which become hereditary ; and too many 
parents are in this morbid alcoholic condition, and are 
entailing it Upon their posterity. 

Nor does heredity stop here. The same baneful in- 
fluence passes on through the medium of the babe un- 
born, and inheres permanently in the organism of the 
mother during the period of maternity, causing a 
gradual deterioration and approximation to the condi- 
tion of the father, as has been fully illustrated by the 
intermarriage of white and colored persons. 

ESSAY PREPARED FOR A TEMPERANCE 

CONFERENCE. 

As we sometimes pause in our labors to take a nearer 
and more comprehensive view of the situation, we see the 
multitude and the magnitude of the evils which every- 
where abound, and we judge our own puny efforts 
as utterly impotent to stem the mighty mass of corrup- 



EZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 1 33 

tion which is opposed to us. No marvel that we 
should become discouraged. But let us remember that 
yon mighty ocean, as it surges with resistless force, is 
only an aggregation of drops of water, and that if, of 
these, only one drop in a day should be removed, the 
whole would eventually be dried up. Let us remember 
that the years and the ages, as they roll into the past, 
are made up of moments ; if only one of these moments 
has been improved, the world has profited by it. So 
let us remember that the nations of the earth are com- 
posed of individuals, and that when we shall succeed in 
reforming one of these individuals, we will have ad- 
vanced the good work. One individual can indeed do 
very little, yet it is the aggregate of these ones which 
represents the Hercules who is to cleanse the Augean 
stables of the accumulated filth of untold ages. 

Frederick H. Hodge writes : " The method of God, 
in the processes of nature, is not instantaneous birth 
but progressive formation. Nothing bursts into being 
full grown and complete. The smallest flower does not 
spring from the earth with its petals all spread and its 
raiment perfect. First, the seed must burst its capsule ; 
then the germ must start ; the blade appears and divides ; 
the bud must swell and the leaf unfold ; the colors be 
stamped, and thus by slow degrees and successive 
stages, the creation of this little being is wrought, and 
in that production all the agencies of nature conspire. 
The earth must feed it with rich juices, the clouds must 
water it with fertile dews, the air must quicken it with 
subtle gases, the sun must paint it with delicate shad- 
ing, and all the stars must unite to hold up the planet 
from which it springs. If so much time and such an 
array of means are required to bring a single flower to 



134 ATJTOGRAPHICAly NOTKS. 

the summit of its being, how many ages must have 
glided by before the earth, with its mountains and its 
forests, could reach the condition in which man first 
found it ? When material creation proceeds so slowly, 
shall the moral creation, the genesis of truth and good- 
ness in human society, be accomplished by instantane- 
ous reform ? 

We may preach and persuade ; we may agitate and 
legislate ; we may plant and water ; but the fruit must 
wait the fulness of time. The patient method of divine 
operation rebukes the impatient zeal which thinks to 
create in a day what time and care alone can perfect. 
This generation will not see its maturing ; our children 
will not see it. Ages must elapse before the ideal of a 
moral community can be fulfilled." — The Primitive 
World, p. ij — 75. 

Hence it is evident that moral reforms do, of neces- 
sity, move slowly. Inveterate vicious habits seldom 
change ; we have to wait till their victims die out, and 
the ranks are too often filled by new recruits mean- 
while. But apart from this discouraging view, there is 
abundant cause for encouragement. 

Within the last decade, prohibitory constitutions and 
local option laws have been adopted. The active 
workers have been quadrupled in numbers and in 
earnestness, and the weapons of their warfare rendered 
more effective. 

Last but not the least, the boundary line between 
temperance and intemperance has been clearly ascer- 
tained and laid down upon the plot. The struggle in 
which you are engaged will be long and hard, but the 
victory will be yours since ' ' Virtue is invincible and 
Truth omnipotent. ' ' 

E. MlCHENKR. 



KZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 1 35 

THE POWER OF APPETITE. 

The story has been told of a certain general — I will 
call him Gen. Dix — who had contracted an appetite for 
strong drink. A friend visited him to warn him of his 
danger. When the object of the visit was madeknow T n, 
the General said : ' ' Hear me first a few words and 
then you may proceed. I am sensible that I have a 
strong craving for spirituous liquors ; I am sensible 
that the gratification of this appetite will lead to the 
loss of reputation, of property, of domestic happiness, to 
the disgrace of my family, to premature death, and to 
the inevitable and eternal loss of my immortal soul ! 
Now with all this conviction upon my mind and flash- 
ing over my conscience like lightning, if I still continue 
to gratify my craving for strong drink, and am not per- 
suaded to abandon the habit, do you think that any- 
thing you can say will do it ? " The friend took his 
hat and retired without a word. 

Now this incident may never have happened ; or 
Gen . Dix may have been a brave and heroic soldier who 
could lead an assault in the face of a hundred cannon 
and ten thousand sharp-shooters without flinching, 
but he had lost the will power to control his appetite. 
This condition has been represented by tens of thou- 
sands who have trod the same bitter path to the same 
bitter end. 

Now has all this terrible experience of the past no 
lesson of instruction for the future ? The same power 
which dragged Gen. Dix and his myriad followers down 
to perdition is still in full operation. Is it not then our 
imperative duty, for our own safety as well as for the 
safety of others, to seek for the cause and by every 



136 AUTOGRAPHIC AI, NOTES. 

practical means remove it out of the way. The cause 
is too obvious to be mistaken ; it is tippling and dram- 
drinking, and the habit is formed gradually, but more 
or less rapidly in accordance with surrounding circum- 
stances. It does not come with the violence of an 
earthquake or the suddenness of a lightning stroke. 
No, you see its approach, you voluntarily place your- 
self in its track, defiant of the danger, till like Gen. 
Dix, you have lost the power to free yourselves from its 
destructive toils. The remedy is no less obvious than 
the cause — Cut off the supply. Remove the cause and 
the effect will cease. Prohibition, entire prohibition of 
the manufacture and sale of all intoxicants, except for 
purely legitimate purposes, is the only practical means 
to this desired end. Let us try it. 

THE GRANTING OF TAVERN LICENSES A 
JUDICIAL FUNCTION. 

While I am free to express my high admiration of 
the judicial administration of Judge Butler, his legal 
acumen, his inflexible integrity, his scrupulous regard 
for justice, I regret to find that he has fallen into what 
I consider to be a serious error in relation to the granting 
of tavern licenses. 

As reported in the Local News of May 19th, Judge 

is made to say that many letters on the subject 

from both sides had been received by himself and Judge 

, but they had of course been thrown aside 

unread. To address such communications was a mis- 
take or worse, though he supposed generally made 
ignorantly. They would never pay any attention to 
applications not made to the court while in session. 



EZRA MICHENER, M. D. 1 37 

This l ' mistake or worse ' ' is not defined, but I suppose 
may be readily understood to refer to the impropriety of 
allowing interested parties to tamper with the judicial 
proceedings of the Court. Now, it is no new assump- 
tion to call the granting of tavern licenses a judicial 
function, nor need we wonder that jurors themselves 
should sometimes fall into this error ; but with all due 
deference to the authorities, I must deny that the duty 
in question is a judicial one. 

The license law, as I understand it, is designed to 
provide safe and comfortable accommodations for stran- 
gers and travellers. It is both permissive and restric- 
tive. It assumes to exercise a salutary discrimination. 
It virtually submits the three following propositions for 
the consideration and determination of the granting 
power, wherever that may be vested in each and every 
case : 

First — Is the licensed house needed to ' ' accommo- 
date the public and entertain strangers and travellers ? ' ' 

Second — Is the applicant ' ' a person of good repute 
for honesty and temperance ? ' ' 

Third — Is he or she ' ' well provided with house room 
and conveniences for the accommodation of strangers 
and travellers ? ' ' 

How r ever important it ma}^ be that these questions 
should be duly considered and correctly answered, they 
are by no means legal or judicial questions, and no force 
of circumstances, not even the legislative investment of 
the power to grant tavern licenses, can raise it to the 
dignity of a judicial function. It may be made a social, 
a moral, but never a judicial consideration to grant or to 
withhold the license asked for. The Legislature could 
have conferred the power on any other tribunal. It has 



138 AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTES. 

conferred it on county auditors, on license boards chosen 
by the townships. Their proceedings could hardly be 
called judicial. But if we must be cursed with a license 
board, if licenses to sell liquor must be granted, the last 
mentioned method of constituting it would seem the 
preferable one on account of the members being residents 
in the immediate neighborhood and familiar with the 
circumstances of the individual case. 

The question then recurs, was there cause for the 
implied condemnation contained in the phrase, " a mis- 
take or worse ? " I think not. 

I have thus briefly expressed my views, not for the 
purpose of fault-finding, but to invite the attention of 
the reader to a serious examination of the whole subject. 

THE LICENSE QUESTION AGAIN. 

Laws, like the scriptures, may be said to possess both 
a literal and a spiritual meaning, and like them, the 
letter killeth but the spirit giveth life. Lawyers may 
wrangle about the letter, but it is the solemn duty of the 
Judge diligently to seek for and inflexibly to maintain 
the spirit of the law which is justice. 

Liquor laws, so far from being intended to give occa- 
sion for and promote the sale of intoxicating drinks, 
were originally designed to prevent the disorders, the 
drunkenness and dangers resulting from such sale. 
Hence it restricted all tippling houses and dram shops, 
only permitting their restricted sale by such trust- 
worthy citizens who were known to be " of good repute 
for honesty and temperance. ' ' 

The spirit of the law still seeks to promote this benev- 
olent purpose, but its letter has been shamefully prosti- 



EZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 1 39 

tuted by a corrupt legislature and a too servile judiciary 
to the unholy object of filling the coffers of a few demor- 
alized rum-sellers — and possibly their own. Thus we 
cannot fail to perceive that the law, from its inception, 
was strongly restrictive and only permissive. 

While it positively prohibited the sale by all others, 
it barely permitted it by those whom it selected as 
worthy of the important trust, and then under many 
restrictions and responsibilities. The sale of liquor was 
then scarcely more than an exceptional incident, not a 
specific grant of privilege. 

The houses were licensed for the entertainment of 
strangers and travellers and were required to be so con- 
ducted as to afford them safe and comfortable accommo- 
dation, and this was expected to make the business 
remunerative. When and wherever this ceased to be 
the case, the spirit of the law would have withheld the 
license. 

Unhappily the letter has been permitted to take the 
ascendency. Indeed, a mighty change has come over 
us — a change in the habits of the people, a change in 
the modes of conveyance, a change in the lines of travel 
which have superseded the necessity for many of the 
licensed houses of entertainment and left them without 
their legitimate means of support. Coincident with 
these changes, there has unhappily been a change of 
legislature, a change of court administration, and a 
change of the purpose for which licenses are sought for 
and granted. Hence the same houses with a host of 
others continue to be licensed, and for what ? Too often, 
it would seem for drunkard manufactories, criminal 
manufactories, to replenish our poor-houses and jails 
and to prepare victims for the gallows. The benevolent 



140 AUTOGRAPHIC AIv NOTES. 

and penal institutions named — indeed suffering human- 
ity everywhere bear witness to this appaling fact. How 
far legislators and courts are responsible for these laws 
and their mal-administration is a question not for them- 
selves onty, but for us, the people, to consider. 

We are told that civilization is progression. That 
the intellectual, moral and religious elements of a man's 
nature are being constantly more and more developed. 
That poor humanity is rising up from her polluted 
depths, regenerated and fitted for a higher and holier 
sphere. This boasted progress should inspire the hope 
that the sale of intoxicating drink will yet be further 
and still further restricted until it will only be allowed 
across the druggists' counter and strictly limited to 
medicinal and art uses ; when it will only be found 
upon his shelves by the side of strychnia, atropia and 
verairia, with the same cautionary label — poison — 
indelibly stamped upon it, and when both buyer and 
seller will be held to a strict responsibility for every 
overt or covert violation of their trust. 



EXTRACTS FROM LICENSE LAW. 

1 7 10. "No person shall hereafter keep any public 
inn, tavern, ale house, tippling house, dram shop, vic- 
tualling house or public house of entertainment, unless 
such person shall first be recommended by the justices 
in the respective county courts to the lieutenant gov- 
ernor, etc., for a license so to do." 

1 72 1. * ' No person other than those qualified under 
the law shall presume, under any pretext whatsoever, 
to sell, barter for or deliver any- wine, rum, brandy or 
other spirits ; beer, cider or other mixed or strong liq- 



EZRA MICHENER, M. D. 141 

uors which shall be used or drunk within their houses 
or sheds, or which shall be with their knowledge, privity 
or consent used or drunk in any shelter place or woods 
near or adjacent to them, by companies of negroes, ser- 
vants or others, or to retail or sell to any person what- 
ever any rum, brandy or other spirits by less quantity 
than one quart, nor any wine by less than one gallon, 
nor any beer, ale or cider by less than two gallons, and 
the same to be delivered to one person, and at the same 
time without any collusion or fraud. ' ' 

1783. "If an}^ person shall hereafter retail and sell less 
than one quart of rum, wine, brandy or other spirits to 
be delivered at one time and to one person, without 
having first obtained license, he shall forfeit and pay 
for every such offense ten pounds." 

1794. " Whereas a great abundance of taverns and 
public houses for the vending of spirituous liquors have 
been found to promote habits of idleness and debauchery, 
to the end that the number thereof be determined by the 
measure of real utility and necessity, be it enacted, etc." 

1710. snante, (1794) (1856). " Every person intending 
to apply for a license shall file with the clerk of the 
court of quarter sessions his or her petition at least three 
weeks before forwarding the same to the court, and the 
said clerk shall cause notice thereof to be published 
three times in two of the newspapers of the county 
in case of hotels, inns, taverns and eating houses. 
The petition shall embrace a certificate signed by at 
least twelve reputable citizens of the township, setting 
forth that the same is necessary to accommodate the 
public and entertain strangers and travellers, and that 
such person is of good repute for honesty and temper- 
ance, and is well provided with house room and conve- 



142 AUTOGRAPHICAIv NOTES. 

niences for the accommodation of strangers and trav- 
ellers." 

1858. " Licenses to vend liquors shall be granted to 
citizens of the United States of temperate habits and 
good moral character whenever the requirements of the 
law are complied with, provided that nothing herein 
contained shall prohibit the court from hearing other 
evidence, and, provided, that after hearing evidence as 
aforesaid, the court shall grant or refuse a license 
according to evidence. ' ' 

17 18. "The justices of the peace of the respective 
counties shall have full power four times in the year to 
set such reasonable prices on all liquors retailed in pub- 
lic houses, andprovender for horses in public stables, as 
they shall see fit, which prices shall be proclaimed by 
the crier and fixed upon the court house doors for pub- 
lic view. ' ' 

1856. ' * The courts shall fix by rule or standing order, 
a time at which applications for licenses shall be heard, 
at which time all persons applying or making objections 
to applications shall be heard by evidence, petition, 
remonstrance or counsel. ' ' 

1858. " No person shall be licensed to keep a hotel, 
inn or tavern in any city or county town, which shall 
not have for the exclusive use of travellers, at least four 
bed rooms and eight beds ; nor in any other part of the 
state at least two bed rooms and four beds for such use. ' ' 

1856. " Before license shall be granted, each person 
applying for the same shall give a bond to the common- 
wealth with two sufficient sureties in the sum of one 
thousand dollars, or five hundred dollars as the case 
may be, for the faithful observance of all laws, etc." 

172 1. " No person keeping a public house or inn shall 



KZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 143 

trust or give credit to any person whatever for liquors 
or other inn or tavern reckoning in any sum exceeding 
twenty shillings, nor shall receive, harbor, entertain or 
trust any minor under the age of twenty-one years, nor 
any servant knowing them to be such, or after having 
been warned or cautioned to the contrary." 

1858. " No license to vend liquors shall be transfer- 
able or confer any right to sell in any other house than 
the one mentioned therein, nor shall any bar be under- 
let by the person licensed. ' ' 

1854. "Willfully furnishing intoxicating drinks to 
any person of known intemperate habits, to a minor or 
to an insane person for a beverage, shall be deemed a 
misdemeanor, and the willful furnishing of intoxicating 
drinks, as a beverage, to any person when drunk or 
intoxicated shall be deemed a misdemeanor, and upon 
conviction thereof the offender shall be fined not less 
than ten nor more than fifty dollars, and undergo an 
imprisonment of not less than ten nor more than sixty 
days." 

1856. "Any person who shall sell intoxicating liq- 
uors to any person who shall drink the same on the 
premises and become intoxicated, shall, besides his 
liability to damages, be fined five dollars for every such 
offense. ' ' 

Not having access to a law library, I am not able to 
furnish a connected abstract of the license law and cor- 
relative legislation for regulating the sale of intoxicating 
drinks. This would be tedious and perhaps uninter- 
esting to many readers, but it is of deep and painful 
interest that we should trace the downward course of 
legislation and judicial action in the premises. 

E. M. 



144 AUTOGRAPHICAIv NOTKS. 

THE LICENSE QUESTION CONTINUED. 

I have already alluded to Judge assertion 

that many letters had been received by himself and 

Judge , but they had been thrown aside unread. 

That to address such communications was a mistake or 
worse, though he supposed, generally made ignorantly. 

This rebuff is not new, whether it was merited or not, 
and whatever that portentous ' ' worse ' ' may have been 
intended to signify, it may be worthy of a little consid- 
eration how far the position assumed is a proper one. 

More than thirty years ago a person holding a tem- 
perance license applied for a license to sell liquors. A 
remonstrance signed by 68 votable citizens of the town- 
ship and another signed by 180 women of the immedi- 
ate neighborhood — many of them the mothers, wives, 
sisters and daughters of intemperate men, imploring the 
court not to allow that which had been the cause of 
destitution and wretchedness to many of them, were 
offered but were not accepted. Some queries were then 
addressed to the president judge asking the position of 
the court and how to approach it. He indignantly 
refused to answer the inquiries, saying, ' ' The idea of an 
association of citizens proposing interrogatories to the 
court is certainly a novel one ; indeed, so far as I am 
informed, this is the first instance in our jurisprudence 
where such a course has been even thought of. Were it 
admissible, no bounds could be set to popular inter- 
ference with judicial action. ' ' 

To this it was replied that the granting of tavern 
licenses is not a judicial act, that it does not require 
any special legal knowledge beyond what any intelli- 
gent person is possessed of, but only an integrity of 



EZRA 'MICHENER, M. D. 145 

purpose and a personal acquaintance with the situation 
— the petitioner and his vouchers — and the circum- 
stances of the surrounding neighborhood. 

If licenses were to be granted, the power to grant 
must be vested somewhere, and the legislature had 
vested it in the judges of the courts, but not necessarily 
so. They might have referred it to a popular vote or 
placed it in the hands of the women who have drunken 
husbands (a very safe investment). And since that 
day the power has actually been lodged in the county 
auditors, in a Board of License chosen by the township 
and in a popular vote for each county. Now I do not 
suppose that our judges would call the granting of 
licenses by any of these methods a judicial service, yet 
it is obviously the very same function by whomsoever 
it may be performed. Premising the political maxim, 
' ' The will of the people is the source and the happiness 
of the people, the end of a well constituted government, ' > 
it was urged that we, the sovereign people, have an 
indefeasible right to make our wills known to our func- 
tionaries, without necessarily tarnishing the purity of 
the ermine or impairing the brilliancy of the purple, and 
certainly without popular interference with judicial 
action when the whole proceeding is extra-judicisl. 

If judges, like other men, hold the scale of justice 
with a trembling hand, it must be admitted that popular 
interference might seriously obstruct the proper admin- 
istration of justice, and I think it is no less admissible 
that if the board of license, however constituted, could 
consult with and ascertain the motives and wishes of 
every person interested in the grant, it would be all the 
better qualified to exercise the high and responsible dis- 
cretionary trust which the people and the law have- 
vested in them. 



146 AUTOGRAPHICAIv NOTES. 

Had the judge in the case alluded to, after hearing 
the petition and the certificate of endorsers, consulted 
with and heard the objections of sixty-eight farmers and 
other sober citizens of the township, who as tax-payers, 
were required to foot the bill ; had he listened to the 
urgent appeals of one hundred and eighty respectable 
women for his sympathy and official aid, to protect them 
and their sisters from the horrors of destitution, starva 
tion and outrage, it cannot for one moment be supposed 
that he would have been less qualified or less disposed 
to administer the law with justice and impartiality. 
Nor is it likely, when thus made acquainted with not 
only the facts in the paper, but also with the facts in 
the neighborhood, that he would have granted to the 
petitioner the legal right to make drunkards, and this 
was certainly the only thing asked for which he did not 
already possess. If our judges had read the " many 
letters ' ' addressed to them, it is possible they might 
have been saved from making the same blunder ; but 
they did not and we have to take the consequences for 
better or for worse. 

CAUSE AND EFFECT. 

It was a happy thought to send us the West Chester 
Local News. West Chester is the focus where legisla- 
tion for the county centers. West Chester holds the 
records which tell the experiences of the past and teach 
lessons of wisdom for the future, hence the West Chester 
Local News must always be a welcome visitor to us 
Chester countains, so long as it continues to bring to us 
the local news of West Chester, judiciously selected 
and correctly rendered. But to do this is an arduous 



EZRA MICHKNER, M. D. 147 

task where there is so much more to be rejected than 
the budget will contain. Hence it often happens that 
just such items as we are anxiously looking for have 
been left out, and disappointment ensues. Now while 
you editors profess very generously to cater for us, your 
patrons, we, selfishly if you please, foot your bills for 
our own gratification — not to be disappointed. Hence 
we feel the necessity and claim the right of informing 
you what kind of local information we are most in want 
of. 

Our laws are very much like the chameleon; they 
continually change their colors in harmony with the 
complexion of the law makers ; yesterday they were 
green, to-day as blue as Yankeedom, to-morrow they 
may present a hue unknown to the rainbow. When 
they come down to their judicial foci, they impart the 
same chameleon-like character to the judiciary. This 
changeable feature of our legislature and judicial admin- 
istration, necessarily works out certain results which it 
is important we should all properly understand. Thus 
it has been known from time immemorial that the use 
of intoxicating drinks and the consequent drunkenness 
were the prolific parents of poverty, misery and crime 
of almost every kind. 

To mitigate these evils our fathers made laws prohib- 
iting the sale of intoxicating drinks except by a few 
persons legally certified and approved by the court to 
be "of good repute for honesty and temperance, ' ' and 
subject to many and severe restrictions, but the chame- 
leon changed color and the plan proved a failure. When 
the skin became blue instead of white, "honesty and 
temperance ' ' changed meaning. Again the reptile 
changed color, and licenses were withheld and the sale 



148 AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTES. 

made a penal offence under local option. But after a 
trial of two years it was found that drunkenness and its 
consequent evils had greatly increased, that the more 
people could not get whiskey the more they drank of it. 
This discovery, be it remembered, was made by the 
hotel- keepers, and they probably had the best right to 
know. Nobody else ever did know it. This appalling 
discovery suddenly changed them to temperance men 
again, and as good templars ought to do, they warned 
the legislature of the moral mischief it had wrought 
through local option and a modicum of their argument 
served to diffuse the same temperance green hue over 
that august assembly. Under whatever persuasives, 
the legislature rudely cut the experiment of local option 
short by a repeal of the law and the restoration of the 
license system. Now here is a conflict of opinion and 
interests, unnecessary and unprofitable, which we should 
be able to reconcile, and the Local News of West Ches- 
ter ought to and probably does contain data which 
would assist us in affecting such a reconciliation. What 
we want is the statistics of the alms-house, the prison 
and the court, so far as they relate to the evils of intem- 
perance during the three periods which have been 
mentioned. 

A Distinct Proposition. 

1. L,et the hotel keepers and the good templars of 
Chester County each select two commissioners, intelli- 
gent and trustworthy persons to make a united and 
careful examination of the records of the alms house, 
prison and criminal courts for two years of the former 
license period, for the two years of local option, and for 
the existing license term, and make a true and faithful 



EZRA MICHEXER, M. D. 149 

report of the facts which may be thus developed, over 
their own proper names. 

2. If either party named shall decline to make 
appointment, let the committee of the other party pro- 
ceed to make the examination and report. 

3. If, in the course of the investigation any question 
shall arise which the said commissioners cannot settle, 
let it be amicably and ex-officially referred to the pres- 
ident judge of criminal court for his advice and deter- 
mination. 

Just here the West Chester Local News steps in with 
a little bit of the local news of West Chester, viz : 
1 ' The rapidly increasing number of inmates within the 
w T alls of our prison unmistakably suggests to the author- 
ities that something must soon be done to provide addi- 
tional quarters if the demand for them continues." 

It will be observed that this item of West Chester 
news contains a very significant "if". This "if" 
necessarily suggests further inquiry ; must the demand 
continue ? How long will the people suffer it to con- 
tinue ? And again, why this rapid increase of inmates ? 
Was it during local option or since the recent license 
period ? Strong reasons, surely, for the adoption of the 
resolutions here offered. If it should be found that our 
pauper and criminal catalogues were abbreviated during 
local option and that they have rapidly increased during 
the present license term, it would become an important 
moral and financial question, whether it would not be 
better and more economical to clip the wings of the 
destroying angel and thus reduce the number of inmates 
rather than to build a larger prison. 

E. M. 
Tough kenamon, 10th of 1st mo., 1876. 



150 AUTOGRAPHIC AI, NOTKS. 

A FEW FACTS. 

1 . It is a fact that the purpose of the original license 
law was to provide safe and comfortable accommoda- 
tion for strangers and travellers by a strict and guarded 
inquiry into the fitness of the applicants, and to pro- 
hibit all places of entertainment where they might be 
unsafe and uncomfortable. 

2. It is a fact that this sacred trust has been lodged in 
our courts, and they in common with other executive 
officers, are responsible for its proper performance. 

3. It is a fact that the license laws have invested the 
courts with ample authority to inquire and absolute 
discretion to determine. 

4. It is a fact that progressive changes in the condi- 
tion of the country, in the habits of the people and in 
the mode and lines of travel have rendered many of the 
former houses, even as places of entertainment, uncalled 
for and superfluous. 

5. It is a fact that with few exceptions, those houses 
are still licensed and can only be made remunerative 
as legalized groggeries, as a resort of the idle, the intem- 
perate and vicious ; destructive alike to the morality, 
the good order and the prosperity of the districts where 
the blighting curse rests. 

6. It is a fact that through the perversion of the law 
and the courts, the land abounds in legal and author- 
ized manufactories of drunkards, of paupers and of crimi- 
nals of every grade. 

7. It is a fact that from eighty to ninety per cent, of 
our drunkards, our paupers, our criminals, have been 
brought into such conditions either directly or indi- 
rectly by those corrupt and corrupting dens. L,et our 
almshouse, our jail, our court testify to this. 



KZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 151 

8. It is a fact consequent upon this condition, that a 
very large proportion of our heavy taxation for county 
purposes is caused by this insufferable burden. In a 
neighboring county, where no such manufactories have 
been permitted, the almshouse was reported without 
paupers, the jail without criminals and the State Attor- 
ney without indictments for the grand jury. No won- 
der that lawyers are scarce down there. 

9. It is a fact that the courts have sheltered them- 
selves under the specious pretense that ' ' the facts were 
in the papers," and where they are in proper form that 
they have no discretionary power. Happily the 
supreme court has brushed away this cobweb and 
thrown the whole weight of responsibility upon the 
courts where it properly belongs. " Let them take up 
the stumbling block out of the way of my people. ' ' Is. 

57, H. 

10. It is a fact that very " many if not most of the 
contentions, violations of order and the graver crimes, 
originate under the influence, if not under the roof of 
houses where intoxicating liquors are sold." 

11. It is a fact that the lawyers derive a large portion 
of their professional business from this source, the emolu- 
ments of which have greatly increased the number of 
attorneys in our county towns. Cut off this source 
and from the 75, more or less, lawyers in our modern 
Athens, we might probably cut off the 5, the remaining 
7 being adequate to the legitimate business of the 
county. 

12. It is a fact that lawyers are not blind to their 
own interests, nor ignorant from whence their bread and 
butter comes, nor are they so far exempt from the com- 
mon infirmities of our human nature as voluntarily to 



152 AUTOGRAPHICAIv NOTES. 

lay this sacrifice upon the altar of humanity, benevo- 
lence and love of the brotherhood of man. 

Ergo. — It is a fact that these supernumerary lawyers 
oppose temperance legislation and present one of the 
chief obstacles to the progress of this great moral 
reformation. 

May we look to the ' ' law associations ' ' for redress of 
our grievances ? The bold attitude which they have 
assumed to direct and control legislative action, "to 
prevent or promote such legislation, or proposed legis- 
lation as they may think best for the public interest, ' ' 
is, to say the least, a dangerous and an alarming one, 
being alike potent for evil as for good. 

Have we, the people of Pennsylvania, indeed come to 
this ? Are we ready to abandon our right to choose 
our lawyers and to direct them what laws to make ? 
Are we prepared to disband the legislature and allow 
the voluntary and self constituted law associations to do 
our law making ? Shall we accept their assumption 
that lawyers are the proper law makers ? I trow not. 

A FRIENDLY LETTER. 

To J. S. Futhey, Judge of the Court of Quarter Sessions of Chester 

County, as the representative of his judicial class. 
Dear Friend : 

While I would not impugn thy motives, I claim the right to 
examine and it may be to criticise thy official determinations in 
relation to liquor licenses. 

To me it is equal cause of surprise and regret that thou should 
have felt required to grant some sixty licenses for hotels and half 
the number for eating houses, more especially the latter. It 
appears that seven hotel licenses were denied and an eating house 
license granted instead. This would seem to indicate that eating 
houses are less pernicious in their tendencies than hotels. This 



EZRA MICHENER, M. D. 153 

is considered by many persons to be a questionable position, 
deserving of serious thought. 

I shall only present the facilities they afford and the influence 
which they exert on the drinking habits of the people. Indeed, it 
is well known that in a large proportion of the cases the drink is the 
purpose, the use for which they are provided. 

What is drunkenness? It is a morbid condition of the human 
organism resulting from the combined operation of primary 
factors. 

1. The habit acquired by frequent indulgence in the use of 
alcoholic and other narcotic stimulants, tobacco, opium, etc 

2. The appetite which is created by the frequent indulgence in 
their use. 

3. A will power too feeble to resist their solicitations whenever 
an opportunity for their indulgence presents. 

A hotel may be defined as a fashionable liquor saloon where 
amateur and gentlemen drinkers congregate for their drunken 
orgies ; a place for the accommodation of full grown and master 
workmen, boys, drunken men and trash being carefully excluded, 
unless, as we too often see, there is another bar down in the base- 
ment expressly for the excluded classes. 

An eating house is the anti-chamber of the liquor saloon, or 
more properly the primary school where boys of all ages and condi- 
tions, children indeed of both sexes, of all colors, at all hours, 
receive instruction in the rudiments of drunkenness, to fit them 
for promotion into the hotel or the basement class as they may be 
qualified. 

Here they are carefully fed. with milk, not with meat, for they are 
not able to bear it ; just a little wine, a little beer, a little cider. 
To the weak or hesitating the draught is modified with a little 
sugar or a sweet cake. To the strong it is stiffened with a whiskey 
stick. He must be a dull scholar who would not learn his lesson 
in such a school, and be able to obtain the honors of a diploma in 
the basement of a whiskey saloon. Judge Clayton seems to have 
made the discovery that to this end ' ' the license laws are violated 
with impunity." 

Now I would seriously ask whether the liquor saloon or the eat- 
ing house is most demoralizing to a community ? The one may 



154 AUTOGRAPHIC A I, NOTES. 

claim a compensating service for by killing off the old stock of 
loafers who have become an unmitigated burden and nuisance, 
while the other has the merit of training victims for the slaughter. 

Now to Judge Futhey we owe our thanks for the discretion 
used in denying liquor licenses, also for dropping out two eating 
houses and bringing seven of the former down to the lower rank, 
and there seems no obvious reason why the same discretion might 
not have been extended further, and if there is a tithe of truth- 
fulness in the views here presented great good might have resulted. 

The experience of my friend, Judge Clayton, has enabled him to 
reach these wise conclusions : That drunkenness cannot be legis- 
lated out of existence by licensing the sale of liquors, that the 
license laws are violated with impunity and that they cannot be 
enforced. 

Quoting from the same authority, "As long as man exists in 
his present state some men will be found too weak to control their 
appetites and will use stimulants. ' ' Now would it not be wise, I 
appeal to the judges, to adopt the plan of Maine, Kansas and Iowa, 
and cut off the supply, removing thus temptation from our weaker 
brethern. 

Prohibition is a cosmopolite, it grows with equal vigor on the 
bleak hills of Maine and the fertile savannas of Kansas and Iowa, 
and when fairly introduced will be found as congenial to Pennsyl- 
vania soil as the whiskey weed or the poisonous tobacco. 

May God speed its early introduction. 
Most sincerely, 

E. MlCHEXER. 

Sylvania, 28th of 3d Mo., '82. 



TOBACCO IN SCHOOLS. 

Dear Local : — A friend has handed me a slip cut from 
a prominent newspaper of a neighboring county, headed 
"Educational Matters," and signed with the initials 
W. W. W., as County Superintendent. The paper 
embraces some points of broader interest to those who 
are interested in educational matters. He says : " One 
of our leading teachers recently asked us what she 



EZRA MICHENER, M. D. 155 

should do to induce a large boy who attended her 
school to abandon the use of tobacco ? Another lady 
has since asked us whether she is required to tolerate a 
pupil who is so penetrated and permeated by tobacco 
as to be offensive. After admitting the pert- 
inency of the questions, and acknowledging the diffi- 
culty of answering them satisfactorily, he says, " The 
School Department at Harrisburg has decided that 
pupils can be required to present themselves in the 
school room in a decent condition, and that if they chew 
tobacco and spit, they can be required to furnish them- 
selves with spittoons ; but it does not attempt to 
describe exactly what constitutes a decent condition/ ' 
Here our friend, seemingly in search of some tangible 
support, suddenly jumps to sumptuary laws. "Sump- 
tuary laws are distasteful to all Americans. They are 
considered abridgments of liberty and are "very difficult 
of execution. The community will not tolerate the 
enforcement of sumptuary laws except on the ground 
of extreme necessity. We are of opinion then that no 
te'acher can be justified in refusing to instruct a pupil 
or in any way abridging his privileges because of his 
use of tobacco. He cannot be debarred the use of 
school except by action of the board of directors. This 
decision may be in accordance with the ruling of the 
school department, which is only another instance of 
the assumption of undue control over the proper training 
of children. It is mere puerile nonsense for the depart- 
ment to talk of each pupil having a spittoon in the 
school rooms. Asa lady remarked, whenever the spit- 
toon comes in I shall go out. 

But what have the requirments of decency or the 
restraints of morality in the training of children either 
in the family or in the school, to do with sumptuary 



156 AUTOGRAPHIC A I, NOTES. 

laws ? If you start out upon that line of argument, and 
admit the tobacco chewers, you surely cannot exclude 
the smokers. The odor of thirty cigars in a school 
room would be exhilarating. And other pupils have 
imbibed the equally inveterate habit of whiskey drink- 
ing. You cannot deny them, it would be sumptuary to 
do that. Others again claim the right of self-defence and 
always carry a revolver ready for use in that way. As 
no one questions this right, they must be tolerated in 
the same manner. 

Now, kind reader, open the door just a little and look 
into this school. Here you see each pupil with a spit- 
toon at his feet, a cigar in his mouth with the possible 
flagon of whiskey and loaded revolver on the desk 
before him, while the atmosphere of the room is filled 
to suffocation with the smoke of tobacco. Alas, is 
such the best education which the most enlightened, 
intelligent and free nation of the earth is capable of giv- 
ing to its children ? Is it not time that we should pause 
and consider whither we are drifting ? 

ADDED EVIDENCE. 

The following interesting letter from Judge Williams 
of Potter County, was read by the Hon. Wm. E. Dodge 
in the Pan-Presbyterian Council, recently held in Phil- 
adelphia : 

COUDERSPORT, POTTER CoUNTY. 

u The traffic in intoxicating drinks dnring the early history of 
the county was like that in the counties adjoining except, if pos- 
sible, drunkenness was more prevalent. About twenty years ago 
attention was drawn to the subject and the people elected associate 
judges pledged to refuse all applications ior license. These officers 
were elected for five years. When that term had expired the 
issue was again made upon the election of associate judges and 



EZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 1 57 

was decided as before, by the election of the anti-license ticket. 
Before this second term had expired the county was represented in 
the legislature by the late Hon. John S. Mann, who procured the 
passage of a law prohibiting the granting of license in the county, 
which law is still enforced. For twenty years there has not been 
a licensed hotel or restaurant within the confines of this county. 
There are enough of both for the accommodation of the public, 
but in none of them is there a public bar. The sale of liquor is 
therefore conducted at great disadvantage, clandestinely and in 
very limited amount. As to results, I can say that while the 
county has been steadily growing in popularity and business? 
pauperism and crime have steadily decreased. For the past rive 
years the county jail has been fully one-half of the time without 
any other inmates than the keeper and his family. Twice within 
the last ten years I have, at the regular term of court, discharged 
the jury on the second day of the term without their having been 
called to consider a single case of any description. The effect of 
the system is felt in many ways : taxes are reduced, the business 
of the criminal court greatly diminished, industry and sobriety 
take the place of idleness and dissipation, and intelligence and 
morality are advanced. 

But one effort has been made to repeal this local law, and that 
failed by reason of the decided protest of a majority of the tax- 
payers of the county. I am glad you are going to stir our church 
on this subject. Vice of any sort only asks the churches to let it 
alone ; grant it toleration and it will take care of itself. Virtue 
must be aggressive or nothing. ' ' 

What a noble example Potter county here presents ! 
How easy, how practical, how sure of success are the 
means which enabled her to cast off the deadly incubus 
of intemperance and ruin, rising to a higher and 
nobler position in the scale of progressive civilization. 
Who will be foremost to follow her brilliant example ? 
Though the masses may supinely continue to wince 
and squirm under the crushing weight of taxation, 
poverty and crime without an effort to remove the 
burden, the example of Potter county will infuse new 



153 



AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTES. 



energy into the friends of temperance and good order, 
leading them on to more earnest and aggressive 
measures. 

At the risk of seeming anxious to repeat, it may be 
instructive in this connection to compare the condition 
of Potter with that of Chester county : 



POTTER. 
During the early history of 
the county, the traffic in intox- 
icating drinks was like that in 
adjoining counties, except that 
drunkenness was, if possible, 
more prevalent. 

For twenty years there has 
not been a licensed hotel or 
restaurant within the confines 
of the county. 

Pauperism and crime have 
steadily decreased. Industry 
and sobriety take the place of 
idleness and dissipatioD. 

Taxes are reduced. 

For the past five years the 
jail has been fully half the time 
without other inmates than the 
keeper and his family. 

The business of the criminal 
court is greatly diminished. 
Twice within the last ten years 
I have discharged the jury on 
the second day of court without 
their having been called to con- 
sider a single case. 



CHESTER. 
The constantly full and 
crowded condition of our jail 
and almshouse, and the pro- 
longed and adjourned sessions 
of our criminal courts testify to 
our present condition. 

On a certain Tuesday morn- 
ing of last year, the court grant- 
ed sixty -two hotel and twenty- 
one eating-house licenses ; 83 
licenses in one morning. 

Pauperism and crime have 
rapidly increased. 

Idleness and dissipation are 
alarmingly common. 

Taxes are steadily increased. 



The grand jury for the term 
now sitting, reported on sixty- 
three bills from the States At- 
torney. Of this number they 
have returned as true bills 
forty-eight, and ignored fifteen. 



Such a picture might incline our people (except the 
lawyers) to go over to Potter. 



EZRA IUICHEXER, M. D. 1 59 

Experience teaches knowledge, and the friends of 
sobriety and good order have paid a generous price for 
what they have learned. E. M. 

Sylvania, yth of Second Mo., 1881. 

AX OPEX LETTER. 

To the President of the Chester County Association for promoting a Pro- 
hibitory Amendment. 
Respected Friend : 

Some months ago the " Reverends " of the land surprised the 
peorjle by taking hold of the temperance question with apparent 
earnestness and unanimity, and adopted a system of organiza- 
tion which promised to develop and utilize the moral and 
religions, if not the political power and influence of the State in 
favor of a prohibitory amendment to the constitution. It is true 
that some conservatives doubted, while others had sad forebodings 
of the result : but the rxLan seemed so plausible that it was gener- 
ally acquiesced in and by common consent was left to those who 
had assumed to manage it. 

The convulsed mountain has at last produced a mouse. 
It was not enough that our boasted government of liberty and 
equal rights should have disfranchised and alienated the larger 
and better portion of our people — the women — by denying them 
the right of suffrage and thus classing them with aliens from China 
and the Fiji Islands. Xo, the pitiful petition which has been 
produced allows none but voters to attach their names to it. 
Thus three-fourths of the numerical, and a vastly larger propor- 
tion of the actual moral and religious power, weight and influence 
of the population, has been thrown away. 

It must be obvious even to the cursory observer that women are 
much more attentive to their moral and religious duties than men 
are. yet a few days ago a number of men — clergymen — niet to 
discuss the question how to employ women in the service of the 
church. Only give them the liberty and they will soon settle, 
practically, that question. 

Again let me ask. of what avail have been church and preaching 
if the vouth of both sexes, from fourteen to twentv-one vears, are so 



l6o AUTO GRAPHIC AI, NOTES. 

ignorant of their duties as to be incompetent to express their 
sentiments on a subject which of all others has cost very many of 
their class the most privation, personal suffering, degradation and 
ultimate ruin. Why then was the promise to this class withheld ? 
Will those who know please answer ? And I appeal to their con- 
sciences to say whether it is not still their duty to provide the 
means for the general expression of the public will. E. M. 

THE TEMPERANCE LADDER. 

It should not have seemed strange had all those who 
have professed to wear the badge of true discipleship 
with Christ — the love of the brotherhood — borne a united 
and consistent testimony against the use of intoxicating 
drinks. Unhappily it has not been so. Drunkenness 
has been as a foul blot on the social page, and quack 
moralists have devised many inefficient remedies, after 
the habit was formed, and confirmed to stay the spread- 
ing leprosy. Failing to do this, they have cut off the 
offending member, but seem not to have inquired into 
nor understood the cause of the malady, nor used any 
precaution to avoid the contagion which it diffused. 

Friends claim to have been pioneers in the advocacy 
of temperance — the first to hold up and maintain a 
practical testimony against intemperance. This may be, 
and I believe is true, and I would not detract from their 
merits ; but if I mistake not a true and impartial history 
of the temperance movement is yet to be written. 

Pioneers as they were, it was a long time before they, 
as a religious body, could raise their testimony higher 
than has been indicated. They continued to use intox- 
icating drinks, apparently without recognizing the fact 
that it was the use which led into the abuse ; the drink- 
ing which led into drunkenness. They seemed not to 



EZRA MICHBNKR, M. D. l6l 

have learned the maxim : ' ' Remove the cause and the 
effect will cease." 

Before proceeding, I wish the reader to understand 
and constantly remember that the discipline of Friends 
very naturally separates into three distinct forms : 

i. Advice, for the preservation of all its members. 

2. Admonition, by overseers or other Friends to the 
erring. 

3. Censure, upon the conduct of the gross transgres- 
sor. These several grades of progress may properly 
constitute so many steps or rounds in the construction, 
of the following 

Temperance Ladder . 
/. Round. — Drunkenness. Advisory. 

1668. — "That Friends do keep in their testimony 
against all profane, idle tippling and taking tobacco in 
coffee-houses and ale-houses, which is an ill savor." — 
George Fox. 

About this time numerous are the cases recorded on 
the books, of drunkenness, fraud, gambling in ale- 
houses, beating of wives, etc. Thus we read of an ap- 
pointment to visit "old Patin, the smith, about his 
getting drunk and beating his daughter." — Lo?idon 
Magazine, 230. 

1 ' Paid Gabriel Erwood, for wine for Friends who 
came to his house after meeting." Again, " For wine 
for Friends that declared at this meeting. ' ' Such bills 
seem to have been settled quarterly for some twenty or 
thirty shillings." — See London Friends' Meeting. 

1698.— ' Agreed by this meeting that Richard Almond 
be desired and empowered to provide some wine for the 
refreshment of laboring Friends after meetings, etc. At, 



l62 



AUTOGRAPHICAL, NOTKS. 



a later period the meeting was charged for "twelve 
pints of wine and six penny worth of Biscakes. ' ' In 
extenuation of this pernicious practice, it should be re- 
membered that the preachers of that period labored with 
great earnestness and energy, and the meetings often 
held four or five hours. Yet it might have been 
worthy of consideration whether the biscakes with a 
cup of coffee could not have been profitably substituted 
for the wine. ' ' 

1728. — " A good substantial meal for all Friends 
present was furnished whenever Quarterly Meeting 
was held at Wand worth. 1728, 1st of Fifth month, 
' ' seventy men and twenty-one women dined at the 
Rose and Crown. ' ' 

Bill of Faee : 

25 lbs. loin of beef, 

29J lbs. veal at Ud, 

6 J 14 oz. bacon 9d, 

Beans, 1 pk., . 

Pnddings, 

Bread, 

Cheese, 

Dressing and butter. 

Breakfast, 

Beer, 8 gallons, 

Wine and tobacco, 

Servants, 



7s 


Od 


Is 


Od 


5s 


2d 


Os lOd 


9s 


3d 


2s 


6d 


Os 


Sd 


LOs 


Od 


2s 


od 


Sn 


Od 


OS 


Ad 


Is 


lOd 



Collected, 



£3 4s Od 
2 3s 3d 



Paid by Monthly Meeting, 1 Os 9d 
Sent in gratis by John Kerweidt, six cabbages, six cauliflowers 
and cucumbers with salad. 

In an extended memoir of that most excellent man, 
Dr. Fothergill, we read : "At his meals he was re- 
markably temperate — in the opinion of some, rather 



KZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 163 

too abstemious — eating sparingly, but with good relish, 
and rarely exceeding two glasses of wine at dinner or 
supper. Yet by his uniform temperance he preserved 
his mind vigorous and active and his constitution equal 
to all his engagements." — Londo?i Magazine, 250. 

II. Round. 

Sale of rum to Indians Advisory Friends who em- 
igrated to New Jersey and Pennsylvania, actuated alike 
by sentiments of justice and humanity to the Indians, 
and a regard to their own personal comfort and safety, 
soon found it necessary to rise one step higher. 

1679. — "This meeting doth unanimously agree and 
give as their judgment, that it is not consistent with the 
honor of truth for any that make profession thereof to 
sell rum or other strong drink to the Indians, because 
they use them not to moderation, but to excess and 
diunkenness. ' ' — Yearly Meeting. 

1687. — " The practice of selling rum or other strong 
drink to the Indians, either directly or indirectly, or ex- 
changing rum or other strong liquors for any goods or 
merchandise with them, considering the abuse they 
make of it, is a thing contrary to the mind of the L,ord, 
and a great reflection and dishonor to the Truth, so far 
as any professing it are concerned, and for the more 
effectual preventing this evil practice as aforesaid, we 
advise that this, oui* testimony, be entered in every 
Monthly Meeting book, and every Friend belonging to 
said Meeting to subscribe the same." — Yearly Meeting. 

This is probably the first temperance pledge on record. 
The Monthly Meeting of Middletown has the pledge on 
its minutes signed by forty-nine members. Other meet- 
ings are supposed to have done the same. 



164 AUTOGRAPHICAIv NOTKS. 

The Falls Monthly Meeting added to its minutes, 
( ' Thomas Yardley and William Janney to speak to W. 
B. and caution him thereof." His answer is that it is 
not against the law, neither does he know that it is any 
evil. However, if Friends desire it, he will forbear. 
Later, " That Lionel Britain do speak to W. B. again, 
and acquaint him that it is the desire of Friends that he 
would be very careful." Yet sixteen years later the 
same Monthry Meeting desires the same W. B. to 
supply what W. P. stands in need of — it being some 
molasses and mm. This W. B. was a poor man, 
perhaps sick also, whom the Meeting had to support ; 
but W. B. was a noted minister of Falls Meeting, which 
was long held in his house. He was a merchant, and 
sometimes chosen to the Assembly and to the Provin- 
cial Council. Strange, that he could not see that the 
sale of rum to the Indians was an evil. 

III. Round. — Sipping and Tippling of Drams. 
1706. — "Advised that none accustom themselves to 
vain and idle company, sipping and tippling of drams 
and strong drinks in inns or elsewhere ; for though such 
as use that evil practice may not suddenly be so far 
prevailed upon as to be drunk in the greatest degree, 
yet they often inflame themselves thereby so as to 
become like ground fitted for the greatest transgres- 
sions. ' ' — Yearly Meeting. 

IV. Rowid. — Admonitory. 

Advice very properly goes before censure. The 
Yearly Meeting had for forty years advised and repeated 
its advice on this important subject. 

1719. — "Advised that such be dealt with as sell, 
barter, or exchange, either directly or indirectly to the 



EZRA MICHENER, M. D. 165 

Indians, rum, brandy or other strong drink." — Yearly 
Meeting. 

V. Round. — Excess in Drinking. Admo?iitory. 
1 ' Inasmuch as people being hurt or disguised by 
strong drink seems to be a prevailing evil, therefore 
when any in membership with us are overtaken there- 
with, they should be admonished and dealt with as 
disorderly persons." — Yearly Meeting. 

VI. Round. — Moderate Drinking. Adv. 

1 72 1. — "It becomes the concern of this Meeting to 
advise and caution all of our profession, carefully to 
watch against this evil when it begins to prevail upon 
them in a general manner, or more particularly at 
occasional times of taking it ; the frequent use whereof, 
especially drams, being a dangerous inlet ; the repeti- 
tion and increase of them insensibly stealing upon the 
unwary, by wantonness in the young and the false and 
deceitful, and warmth it seems to supply to the old, so 
that by long habit, when the true warmth of nature 
becomes weakened thereby, the stomach seems to crave 
these strong spirits even to supply that which they have 
destroyed. ' ' — Yearly Meeting. 

It is interesting to observe how completely this 
minute anticipates some of the boasted discoveries of 
modern times. It recognizes all the essential principles 
of the temperance reformation, but the people were not 
then able to carry them out. 

VII. Round. — Givi?ig Liqiwrs at Vendues. 

1726. — "It having been observed that a pernicious 

custom has prevailed of giving rum and other strong 

liquors to excite such as bid at vendues and provoke 

them at every bidding to advance the price, which 



1 66 AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTES. 

beside the injustice of the artifice, is very scandalous 
and leads to great intemperance and disorder, therefore 
it is the unanimous sense of this Meeting to caution 
Friends against the same ; and if any under our profes- 
sion do fall into this evil practice, or do by any means 
encourage the same, they shall be speedily dealt with 
as disorderly persons." — Yearly Meeting. 

It may be observed that the preamble to the law of 
this State prohibiting the practice, is virtually and 
almost verbally a copy of the foregoing advice which 
was uttered twenty-five years before its enactment. 

VIII. Round.— Family Use and Among Children. 

1735-6. — "This meeting repeats the caution of last 
year against the frequent use of drams or other strong 
drink in families and elsewhere, and particularly to be 
cautious of giving them to children and thereby 
accustom them to the habit of drinking strong liquors. ' ' 
— Yearly Meeting. 

Very proper, and yet it is hardly less dangerous to pass 
the children by. Children are often close observers and 
correct reasoners. If the article is good for the parents 
or is used as a token of hospitality to a friend, they will 
conclude that it would be good for them also. Denial 
only whets the appetite and increases the craving. It 
is also felt as a deception and falsehood. If parents will 
consider this, they will soon find that there is but one 
safe and consistent course for them to pursue — one means 
of safety for their children— complete and total absti- 
nence from all that intoxicates. 

1737. — " We fervently pray that all Friends may be 
careful not to give way to the gratifying and inordinate 
appetite for any kind of drams or other spirituous 
liquors. ' ' — Yearly Meeting. 



EZRA MICHKNER, M. D. 167 

IX. Round. — Moderate Drinking. 
1738. — "It is recommended to the several Monthly 
and Quarterly Meetings to caution Friends that they be 
exceedingly careful against the too frequent use of 
spirituous liquors * * * and to direct the overseers 
to deal with such as may drink to excess." — Yearly 
Meeting. 

X. Round. — Recommendation for License. 
1738. — "The great number of public houses being 
considered, it is recommended that Friends use their 
endeavor to lessen the number of persons for that 
service ; and that Friends be careful not to sign peti- 
tions of , any but such as are proper persons, or where 
there is a real necessity." — Yearly Meeting. 

XI. Romid. — Query. 

1743. — "This Meeting directs that the following 
Query be read in the -several Monthly Meetings and 
Preparatives, at least once in each quarter of a year : 

' ' Do Friends keep clear of excess either in drinking 
drams or other strong drink? " — Yearly Meeting. 

1749. — " The overseers are desired to be timely and 
vigilant in dealing with such as offend against this 
branch of our discipline." — Yearly Meeting. 

XII. — Giving Liquors at Vendues. 
1750. — " Our discipline which relates to the practice 
of giving drams at vendues, being now considered, it is 
the sense of this Meeting that such persons who trans- 
gress the same should be dealt with as disorderly 
persons, and if they persist in justifying their conduct, 
and refuse to give satisfaction for the same, they ought 
to be testified against. " : — Yearly Meeting. 



1 68 AUTOGRAPHIC AIv NOTES. 

XIII. Round. — Query. 
1755. — "Are Friends careful to avoid the excessive 
tise of spirituous liquors, the unnecessary frequenting 
taverns and places of diversion, and to keep to true 
moderation and temperance on account of births, mar- 
riages, burials and other occasions ? ' ' 

XIV. Round. — In Harvest and Other Times. 
1766. — ' ' Overseers and other Friends are desired to 
excite their brethren to vigilance to avoid the immoder- 
ate use of spirituous liquors in harvest time ; and a concern 
is revived in this Meeting, to advise against and excite 
Friends to discourage it on all occasio?ts both by example 
and precept." — Yearly Meeting. 

XV. Round. — Distillation from Grain. 
1777. — ' ' In regard to the practice of destroying grain 
by distilling spirits out of it, it is the sense and judg- 
ment of this Meeting that this practice should be 
wholly discouraged and disused among Friends ; and 
that Friends ought not to sell their grain for that pur- 
pose or to use or partake of liqnor made out of grain." 
— Yearly Meeting. 

XVI Round. — Public Houses. 
1777. — "Considering the snares both to our young 
people and others which are attendant on the business 
of keeping houses of public entertainment, beer-houses 
and dram shops, whereby the reputation of the Truth 
has greatly suffered, and in some places the children 
and families of persons concerned therein have been 
brought into disgrace and loss, both spiritually and 
temporally, it is the united sense and judgment of this 
Meeting that Friends ought not to give way to the de- 



EZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 169 

sire for outward gain arising from such employments, 
but to keep themselves clear thereof by attending to the 
pointings of pure wisdom." — Yearly Meeting. 

XVII. Round. — Query. 
1777. — "Are Friends careful to discourage the un- 
necessary distillation of spirituous liquors, or their use ? 
frequenting taverns and places of diversion, etc." 

XVIII. Round. — Manufacture and Traffic. 

1788. — " For the preservation of our fellow members 
from the temptation of the gain of unrighteousness, we 
think it expedient that Quarterly and Monthly Meetings 
be excited and enjoined early to appoint committees 
unitedly to visit and treat with our members individu- 
ally, who are concerned in importing spirituous liquors 
from the West Indies or others places, either on their 
own account or for others, in greater or less quantities, 
as also those members who are concerned in the distilla- 
tion of these liquors from grain or other produce, either 
in their own families or encouraging and promoting it 
in others." — Yearly Meeti7ig. 

(The latter clause seems to relate to a practice then 
quite common, for farmers to own small stills, and to 
distill their own liquors and sometimes for a few neigh- 
bors.) 

XIX. Round. — Medicinal use of Liquors. 
1788. — " We apprehend it is expedient to recommend 
and advise those who make use of spirituous liquors in 
their families in a medicinal way, that they be careful 
to keep within the bounds of true moderation in the 
use of them for such purpose." — Yearly Meeting. 



J70 AUTOGRAPHICAIv NOTES. 

XX. Rou7id. 
1794. — "If any should reject the labor and advice 
of Friends by continuing in the practice, etc., etc., 
that such should not be employed in any service in 
the church, nor their contributions be received for the 
use of such. — Yearly Meeting. 

XXL Round. 
1794. — "If any should distill spirits out of grain or 
retail such liquors, Monthly Meetings should deal with 
them as with other offenders, and if they cannot be pre- 
vailed upon to desist from such a practice, be at liberty 
to declare their disunity with them." — Yearly Meeting. 

XXII. Round. 

1832. — "Monthly Meetings ought to take an early 
opportunity tenderly to treat with such of our members 
as are concerned in the importation, distillation or sale of 
spirituous liquors, and if after faithful, patient labor to 
convince them of the awful, demoralizing effects of 
their conduct, and its inconsistency with the testimony 
of our Religious Society, they cannot be prevailed upon 
to relinquish the business, the said meeting be at 
liberty to put the discipline in practice against them." 
— Yearly Meeting. 

XXIII. Round. 

1832. — * ' A tender religious care ought to be extended 
to those of our members who are given to the use of 
spirituous liquors, or who hand it out in harvest time, 
in order to dissuade them from the practice." 

XXIV. Round. — Query. 
1839. — " Are Friends clear of the distillation orsaleof 
spirituous liquors ? Are they careful to discourage the 



EZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 171 

use thereof as a drink, and from the attending places of 
diversion and the unnecessary frequenting of taverns ; 
and do they keep to true moderation and temperance on 
account of marriages, burials and other occasions." 

XXV. Round. — Advisory Against Renting, Etc. — 1841. 

XX VI. Round, — Query as Proposed by Fishing Creek 
Half - Yearly Meeting. 

1 87 1. — " Are Friends clear of the use as a beverage 
and of the manufacture and sale for that purpose of all 
spirituous or malt liquors, wines, or anything that can 
intoxicate ? And is due caution observed in the use 
thereof as a medicine ? ' ' 

Way did not open for its adoption in the unity, and 
the subject was referred to the further consideration of 
Friends at the next Yearly Meeting. 

1872. — Report of Joint Committee. Prevailing sense 
of Committee tha.t the proposition from Fishing Creek 
be adopted — some Friends dissenting. On considera- 
tion, way did not open to adopt. 

This was to many a humiliating scene. Friends 
who had long occupied conspicuous places in our 
society, and were looked upon as fathers and mothers, 
elders in the church, standing up in determined opposi- 
tion to the further progress of the temperance reforma- 
tion, which their sons and daughters were earnestly 
laboring to promote. E. Michener. 

[From the large accumulation of material in Dr. 
Michener's manuscript, bearing upon this subject so 
near his heart, much that is of interest to the friends of 
temperance, and especially so to his co-workers in the 
cause, must of necessity be omitted, and we give his 



172 AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTES. 

concluding remarks in connection with the above 
article, as also a fitting close to his long and earnest 
conflict with the evil. His Christian charity may well 
excuse his sometimes warmly tempered zeal. — Ed.] 

Conclusion. 

The unfolding of Divine Truth in the minds, is 
a gradual work, dependent upon the degree of obedience 
rendered to its manifestations, for it will ever remain to 
be a truth, that " he that is faithful in the little shall be 
made ruler over more." The progress of associated 
bodies is retarded by causes which do not operate upon 
individuals. Religious society is necessarily composed 
of heterogeneous materials. There are many gifts but 
one spirit. Many states of religious experience ; many 
degrees of obedience to manifested requirements. The 
feeble will lag behind and require a helping hand ; the 
doubting will wait for clearer manifestations ; the 
perverse will not move forward in united action, and 
some may utterly refuse to walk by the light that has 
been furnished them. Yet herein is the beauty and ex- 
cellence of religious association, that the strong and 
the confident are willing to wait for and encourage the 
weak and timid, casting off only those who wholl} 7 re- 
fuse their proffered assistance. This has been beauti- 
fully exemplified in the case before us. For two 
centuries, by long, patient unremitting labor, the 
society has steadily advanced in the temperance move- 
ment so far. 

Much remains to be accomplished before we can 
stand secure on that proud platform. Total abstinence 
from all that intoxicates, to which the Temperance 
Ladder will finally lead us. E. Michkner. 



EZRA MICHENER, M. D. 173 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

A POINT OF ORDER AND DISCIPLINE. 

To some of us who have grown gray in the mainten- 
ance of the discipline, established in 1719, relative to 
the appointment of overseers to attend marriages, the 
proposition ' ' To amend this rule so that the parties con- 
cerned might make their own selection among their 
friends, etc.," seems strange. 

We can readily suppose that the presence of solid, 
religiously concerned overseers has frequently exercised 
an irksome restraint — none the less needed on that 
account — over giddy and thoughtless youth who often 
attend marriages. I have long believed that it is more 
from a desire to escape this restraint, than from a desire 
to lessen the number in attendance, that wedding 
parties wish to select their own overseers. 

I always rejoice to find a religious concern to have 
the attendance small, but this object is easily attained 
without recourse to this disorderly practice. Friends 
seem almost to have forgotten that the oversight and 
proper conduct of marriages is a religious concern of 
society in its collective capacity, the administration of 
which has been delegated to the executive department 
— the Monthly Meeting — not to the individual specially 
concerned, but for their encouragement and assistance 
in preserving and maintaining good order. The respon- 
sibility of the overseers of a marriage is greatly enhanced 
by the present discipline. The Monthly Meeting is 
authorized, virtually to appoint a time and place for 
holding a solemn religious meeting. To secure this 
purpose, it is required to choose four suitable Friends to 



174 AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTKS. 

attend, and see that the meeting is properly held, and 
also to report. The responsibility is here placed upon 
and cannot be removed from the Monthly Meeting. It 
must therefore be a palpable dereliction of this solemn 
duty for the meeting to allow some outside, irresponsi- 
ble, and perhaps incompetent parties to assume its 
functions. E. M. 

BRIEF NOTES ON THE BURIAL SERVICE. 

Most nations of people of whom we have any record, 
whether ancient or modern, savage or civilized, have 
considered and practically acknowledged the burial of 
the dead to be a religious rite. Their ignorance and 
superstitions, their idolatrous objects and modes of 
worship may sometimes have disguised, but could not 
altogether obscure the religious sentiment which every- 
where underlies and influences the various modes of 
sepulture. 

I have been gratified to observe a disposition to 
revive the ancient practice of Friends of assembling at 
funerals in their meeting houses instead of the homes 
of the deceased. Thus the family is relieved of a great 
burden, and better accommodations are furnished to 
those in attendance than can usually be afforded to those 
in private houses. There the family can sit down in 
solemn silence, and may find in it a fit opportunity for 
entering into close sympathy with the mourners or into 
a still closer retrospection of their own past lives, and 
of their fitness to respond to the awful summons : 
1 ' Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die and not 
live." How much better this than to meet at the 
house of mourning where the company become separated 



KZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 1 75 

in different apartments or collected in groups out of 
doors. In those isolated groups the trivial affairs of 
time too often occupy the attention to the exclusion of 
the more important concerns of eternity. 

In this way the ostensible purposes of the meeting are 
frustrated. Those who so demean themselves, neither 
show respect for the dead nor sympathy for the living. 
It is needless to say how grating such thoughtless, 
may I not say rude conduct, must be not only to the 
family, but to all sober and reflecting minds. But if 
abuses have crept in when assembled at the house of 
the deceased, so they may gain admission when 
gathered at the meeting house. I hope I shall be ex- 
cused for referring briefly to some of them. When it is 
appointed to meet at the meeting house, the tendency is 
for too many of the relatives and friends to gather at the 
house that they may accompany the corpse to the place 
of meeting. In this way the family may have its 
burden increased, not lessened, by the combination of 
the two methods with the evils of both. 

There is also, in some places, a disposition to extend 
funeral notices and thus to gather large companies. 
May we not sometimes discover a feeling of gratifica- 
tion, may I not add, of pride in the fact of a very large 
funeral attendance ? There is danger in this ; may 
we guard against its insidious approaches. 

The same inducement which gathers large companies, 
will lead to extensive and sumptuous preparations for 
the table on such occasions. The rights of hospitality 
should not be neglected, but I have sometimes thought 
that if a stranger were to be dropped suddenly into one 
of our funeral festivals, he would be led to conclude 
that some joyous event had occurred in the family for 



176 AUTOGRAPHICAIv NOTES. 

which ' ' the fatted calf had been killed that they might 
rejoice and make merry." 

Excess of Preaching. — The delicacy of this part of 
my subject may have shielded it from scrutiny, and 
permitted the evil to pass unrebuked. I do not — I dare 
not — limit the operations of the spirit. I do not accuse 
any one individually. There is no more fitting time 
or occasion for true gospel service, none of which the 
audience ought to be better prepared to receive its 
urgent warnings, its glorious promises than at a funeral, 
with the sure evidence of mortality lying before them. 
But a few words "fitly spoken," are like "apples of 
gold in pictures of silver." A word to the wise is 
sufficient. 



MEETINGS AND THE MINISTRY. 

Permit me now to call the attention of Friends 
generally, but more especially of ministers, to a special 
branch of the gospel ministration ; the duty of minis- 
ters when travelling in the service of Truth, to visit the 
brethren in their little primary meetings. But let us 
remember that if it is the duty of ministers to attend these 
meetings, it must be a co-ordinate duty of the members 
to uphold and maintain them. 

I admire the sentiment of him who said, ' * We do not 
want an eloquent ministry ; nor we do not want a flowery 
ministn^ ; we want a living ministry ; we want a 
baptizing ministry ; a ministry that will break a hard 
heart and heal a broken one. A ministry that will 
lead us to the fountain and leave us there." 

Those who have watched the progress of our society 
for the last half century, have become conversant with 
two facts which are worthy of notice : 



EZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 177 

i st. That Friends who travelled in the ministry fifty 
years ago, almost always visited the brethren where 
their lot was cast in their small meetings. But more 
recently such Friends often pass those little assemblies 
by and depend upon seeing the people in the larger 
bodies of Quarterly and Yearly Meetings. 

2d. That fifty years ago the primary meetings were 
quite as w r ell attended as the larger gatherings. But 
more recently the smaller meetings have been sadly 
neglected, while the larger ones have been well 
sustained. We can hardly fail to perceive that there is 
a relation of cause and effect between these co-ordinate 
facts. The people ask why need w r e go to these meet- 
ings? The ministers do not come there to visit us. 
The ministers ask, why need we go to those little meet- 
ings ? The people are not there. Yet both the minis- 
ters and the people continue to attend the larger meet- 
ings. 

From this view of the subject it is difficult to avoid 
the conclusion that ministers, by so withdrawing their 
visits from the inferior meetings, have notably con- 
tributed to the very evil which they were laboring to 
remove. 

But Friends everywhere should remember that they 
too have a duty to perform, that of faithfully attending 
and properly maintaining their own little meetings, for if 
it is a duty of ministers to visit these meetings, it must be 
a co-ordinate duty of the members to be there ready to 
receive them. By absenting themselves they virtually 
reject the message of divine love which may be sent to 
them, and may they not by their own neglect turn 
away "The feet of them that preach the Gospel of 



178 AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTES. 

Peace, and bring glad tidings of good things," until it 
can no longer be said that ' ' God hath visited his 
people." 

In these days of high intellectual culture, there has 
sprung up among us an eloquent ministry, a flowery 
ministry, and, though not necessarily so, there is 
danger in the eloquent and flowery. Danger that the 
possessor may become proud of the attainment and vain 
of displaying it. That disdaining to preach to empty 
benches, to the tens or the fifties in the small meetings, 
he may prefer to exhibit his talents where the hundreds 
and the thousands congregate. There is even danger 
that we may come to have two descriptions of ministers, 
two forms of ministration — a gospel ministry and an 
intellectual ministry. 

There is, moreover, a great commotion, a general 
upheaving throughout the Christian world. The 
people are fast losing their veneration for religious 
dogmas and conventional forms which have so long 
usurped the place of true vital religion and spiritual 
worship. 

The foundation stones of the great modern Babel, 
which priestcraft has erected, are mouldering into 
dust, and the superstructure, like its prototype on the 
plains of Shinar, is tottering to its fall. Why should 
not we suffer our part in the general ruin ? 

Note. 
I do not object to intellectual culture, only to the manner of it. 
Physiologically considered, man is a triune being. He is endowed 
with three sets of faculties : the intellectual, moral and religious, 
each in its measure capable of separate and independent action, but 
requiring a co-operation of all the three to constitute a vigorous 



KZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 1 79 

and well-balanced mind. The cultivation and exercise of either 
set of faculties, without the others, necessarily produce mental 
deformity and impair the healthy functions of the mind. Thus 
we may educate the same individual to be either an unbelieving 
rationalist, a doubting moralist, or a fanatical religionist. E. M. 



RISING IN TIME OF PRAYER. 

It may be difficult to trace the time-honored custom 
of rising in time of prayer, to its origin, or to determine 
by what authority or for what purpose it was instituted. 
But from fragments of church history which remain to 
us, it appears that the practice existed in the Christian 
churches about the close of the second century, in connec- 
tion with what I have elsewhere designated conven- 
tional prayer. I do not find any earlier mention of it as 
a Christian usage, but it had at that early period 
assumed so exaggerated a form as to suggest to my 
mind that its source would probably be found far 
down in the calendar of heathen and idolatrous wor- 
ship, as a means of the priest's ascendency over the 
people. 

About the time referred to, (the close of the second 
century) history informs us that ■ * The preacher fre- 
quently concluded his sermon with an exhortation to 
his audience to stand up and pray to God, standing being 
the usual posture of praying, at least on Sundays, on 
which days they esteem it a sin to kneel. When the 
congregation stood up, they all turned their faces 
toward the east, which was their usual custom, and put 
themselves in a praying posture by stretching out their 
hands and lifting up their eyes toward heaven." The 
people did not join with the minister in prayer, 



l8o AUTOGRAPHIC AIv NOTES. 

but satisfied themselves with testifying their assent to 
what he had expressed by saying ' ' Amen " or ' ' So 
be it." 

I believe it has not been shown that the practice of 
rising in time of prayer was introduced into the Chris- 
tian church until after the priests, in imitation of their 
idolatrous prototypes, had spread the gloomy pall of 
their craft over the people. 

Where this state of things already exists, or where 
there is an established liturgy , a conventional form of 
prayer to be used on special occasions as they occur, 
where the congregation may be presumed to be familiar 
with the several forms and to know which one has 
been appropriated for the occasion, it may be a fitting 
accompaniment of the other conventional forms and 
rituals which are practiced for, and no doubt honestly 
believed to be divine worship. 

At the time of the rise of the religious society of 
Friends, it may have been the general, if not the 
universal custom, to rise in time of prayer, a practice 
which they, as a religious society, did not then feel re- 
quired to renounce. It might have been inexpedient 
for them to have done so. The expediency, if it ever 
existed, of holding to this old custom, has long since 
ceased to exist, and I am unable to comprehend why 
our religious society, after having renounced so many 
vain and empty forms, should cling so tenaciously to 
this observance. If we really believe that " God is a 
spirit and that they who worship him must worship 
him in spirit,'' we ma}^ well inquire whether would 
this spiritual worship be better performed in the still- 
ness and quiet of the body, than amidst the bustle and 



EZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. l8l 

noise consequent on rising ? I have always felt it to be 
a disturbing element to rise on so solemn an occasion. 
May it not be time for us seriously to consider whether 
we rise from a solemn sense of religious duty or from 
mere traditional usage. While all were satisfied with 
and voluntarily observed the practice, no one felt 
burdened by it, but this has long since ceased to be the 
case. There are many who feel a conscientious objec- 
tion to it. While we should all unite in the great 
fundamental principle of the society — the light of 
Christ in the souls of men — there is room for greater 
charity one toward another in non-essentials, mere 
matters of opinion. As regards these, I would adopt 
the sentiment of the good Tertullian, more than seven- 
teen centuries ago : "It ought to be left to the free 
choice of men to embrace that religion which seems to 
them most agreeable to truth. No one is injured by 
another man's religion. It is not an act of religion to 
force religion, which oughtto be adopted spontaneously, 
not by compulsion." 

Public prayer from a properly qualified and author- 
ized instrument, whether it be to plead for mercy, to 
crave a blessing or to ascribe thanksgiving and praise 
unto God, is one of the most solemn and impressive 
acts of divine worship of which the mind of man is 
capable. But public pra}^er may be and too often is 
desecrated. There are "money changers and those 
who sell doves ' ' in the temple. The solemn act of 
offering prayer to the Most High has been made a 
merchantable commodity. It may be feared that 
money is not the only recompense which men seek for 
this service. They may, like some formerly, " L,ove to 



1 82 AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTES. 

pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of 
the streets that they may be seen of men. ' ' And amidst 
the general declension, it must not be presumed that we, 
as a religious body, have alone escaped contamination. 
We too may have unauthorized supplications which 
proceed from the lips only, and do not commend them- 
selves to the better feelings of the pure in spirit ; but 
the custom of rising is too arbitrary to permit the 
hearers to discriminate. Rising is claimed as a mark 
of approbation and respect by the speaker, and non- 
compliance is consequently construed into disrespect 
and a violation of good order. 

A supplicant may approach the divine presence with 
polluted lips ; he may be in the true sense of the word 
a hireling ; his petition is unknown and cannot be 
anticipated, and when offered may prove to be repug- 
nant to the better feelings of the hearers. In such an 
emergency how shall they demean themselves ? The 
answer may be evasive ; the inference being that the 
rule applies only to those ministers who have been ap- 
proved by the society ; but the predicates of this 
answer are inadmissible. The approval may have 
been injudiciously given, or it may have been insuffi- 
cient to restrain the speaker withit? proper limits. It 
often does great injustice also to young ministers whose 
offerings are unexceptionable, but who have not yet 
obtained the formal recognition of the societ} r as 
ministers. Again admitting that the supplicant is 
properly fitted and commissioned for the service, what 
then? The ready reply is "rise." Now whatever 
may be the state of individuals, it cannot be supposed 
that a mixed audience as a whole will just at that 



EZRA MICHKNER, M. D. 1 83 

time feel imbued with the spirit of prayer, or susceptible 
of being brought suddenly into that condition. Must 
the} 7 sit still and incur censure for their honest consis- 
tency, or rise in obedience to the stern mandate of 
dubious custom, hypocritically pretending to be in a 
spiritual condition to which they have not attained ? I 
would not seek controversy ; only inquiry. I would 
not promote ranterism ; only freedom of conscience. I 
would not reject an established usage until satisfied of 
its unfitness ; and until Friends shall be so satisfied, I 
shall endeavor, so far as I conscientiously can, to 
acquiesce. E. M. 

New Garden, 10th of Tenth Mo. '77. 



CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. 

Can Christians lawfully inflict capital punishment ? 
Professed Christians have for a long time returned an 
affirmative answer by their statute books, and by the 
struggling victims as they hang suspended from the 
gallows. 

But whence do the}' derive their authority to take 
away the life of a fellow being ? The answer comes, 
" From the law of Moses." This may have been a 
justifiable warrant for a Jewish Sanhedrim, but does it 
apply to a Christian court of justice? Whether is the 
law of Moses or the law of Christ most obligatory on 
Christians ? In order that we may properly answer the 
inquiry, let us compare the leading characteristics of 
the two laws, trace out the authorities on which they 
stand and determine which is most in accordance with 
the attributes of Him who is love. 



1 84 



AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTES. 



Law of Moses. 

Thine eye shall not pity. 
Thou shalt give life for life ; 
eye for eye ; tooth for tooth ; 
hand for hand ; foot for foot ; 
burning for burning ; breach 
for breach ; as he hath caused 
a blemish in a man, so shall it 
be done unto him again. 

He that killeth a man, shall 
surely be put to death. 

He that blasphemeth the 
name of the Lord, shall surely 
be put to death. 

He that smiteth or curseth 
his father or mother, shall 
surely die. 



Thou shalt 
witch to live. 



not suffer a 



The adulterer and adulteress 
shall surely be put to death. 



Law of Chkist. 

It hath been said, an eye 
for an eye, and a tooth for a 
tooth, but I say unto you that 
ye resist not evil, but who 
soever shall smite thee on the 
one cheek, turn to him the 
other also. 

It hath been said, thou shalt 
love thy neighbor and hate 
thine euemies ; but I say unto 
you, love your enemies, bless 
them that curse you, do good 
to them that hate you, and 
pray for them that despitefully 
use you and persecute you, 
that ye may be the children 
of your father which is in 
heaven . 

Neither do I condemn thee 
(to be stoned to death) — go 
and sin no more. 



God in manifold wisdom and goodness, has given 
successive dispensations to his dependent creature-man, 
each progressive in its character, approaching nearer to 
and partaking more of the spirituality which charac- 
terizes the dispensation of Christ. Nor is this a mere 
assertion ; the prophets saw it in prophetic vision ; the 
apostles verified it in their own experience. 

After the prophesies of Ezekiel and Jeremiah — Chap. 
XX, 25, and XXXI, 31-3 — Paul writing to the same 
people, says: "Christ is the mediator of a better 
covenant which was established on better promises, for 
if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no 
place have been found for the second/' 



EZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 1 85 

11 In that he sayeth a new cove?ia?it he hath made the 
first old. Now that which decay eth and waxeth old, is 
ready to vanish away." 

In perfect harmony with the promise of a new 
covenant is the prophecy of Isaiah : ' ' Unto us a child 
is born ; unto us a son is given ; and the government 
shall be upon his shoulder ; and his name shall be called 
Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Ever- 
lasting Father, The Prince of Peace." Here w r e have 
arrived at the foundation and authority of the law of 
the Christian church ; the dispensation of Christ which 
breathes peace on earth and good will to all men. To be 
a Christian, if it means anything, must signify to be 
Christ-like ; willing to foilow his example and practice 
his precepts. It was his glorious mission to establish 
his kingdom of peace and good will on the earth. But 
it is obvious that this mission has not been accomplished ; 
and why so long delayed ? 

Millions of professing Christians have passed across 
the stage, loudly proclaiming their mission, making 
profession without evincing the possession of that 
Christ-like spirit which was necessary to enable them to 
complete the work which had been assigned them to do. 
Having fallen short of the ' ' mark for the prize of the 
high calling of God in Christ Jesus," they have not 
fully attained to his new covenant of love as Christians, 
and hence continue in the cruel and bloody practice of 
inflicting the death penalty. 

A REMINISCENCE. 

In my twenty-first year I went to Philadelphia to 
commence the study of medicine. I had never spent 
more than two hours in the city ; a stranger alike to 



1 86 AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTES. 

its manners and customs, its follies and vices. I 
carried with, me a certificate of membership to Philadel- 
phia Monthly Meeting, on the presentation of which the 
late Dr. Samuel S. Griffiths was one of the Friends ap- 
pointed to visit me. Subsequent professional arrange- 
ments brought me into almost daily intercourse with 
Dr. Griffiths, and the dear old man became one of my 
kindest friends. 

During this severe transition period, as indeed 
through my whole life, I made no change in the cut of 
my clothing nor in the use of the plain language. And 
here let me say for the help of those who are 3-ounger, 
that while I did not find it a hindrance to proper and 
profitable associations, social, scientific or religious, I 
did find it an effective barrier against seductive and 
vicious company, as the following incident will show : 

In the autumn of 18 15, I entered the University of 
Pennsylvania, consisting of about four hundred students, 
largely from the South. Although there were a num- 
ber of members of our Society in the class, I was the 
only one whose dress and manners made the fact 
manifest. With many I was a spotted sheep on that 
account, but as I was earnest and industrious in my 
studies, others of studious habits soon sought my com- 
panionship. One day, early in the session, while the 
class was waiting the detention of the lecturer, a young- 
man, an entire stranger, came and sat down by my 
side. ' ' Sir," he said, ' ' I presume you are a Quaker ? ' ■ 
I replied that I was so called. ' ' Well, sir, I never saw a 
Quaker until I came to this city two weeks ago ; but 
the} 7 have been represented to me as the lowest class, 
the very dregs of society, and you cannot imagine. my 
surprise to find the number and the respectability of 
them in this place. I find that I have been grossly mis- 



EZRA MICHKNER, M. D. • 1 87 

informed respecting your people, and I wish to know 
more about them. My companions share the prejudice 
with which I came, and I shall be hooted at for speak- 
ing to you to-day." Here his remarks were interrupted 
by the lecturer who began to speak. 

The next day the visit was repeated. "Well, sir," 
he began, " it was as I expected; my fellow students 
sought to ridicule me for speaking with you, but I have 
changed my boarding house, where I can choose my own 
company." As a result he called the next day and we 
went to Arch street meeting, where he was well pleased, 
and this became our practice during the winter. 

Our intimacy increased, having special reference to 
our studies. It was understood that we would both re- 
main in the city during the summer, which would 
afford more leisure for other matters. I had only, as 
yet, located his home as being far up the Red River in 
Louisiana. One day our door bell was rung at an early 
hour, and I found my friend waiting, carpet-bag in 
hand, ready for a journey. He seemed much excited, 
as he said, "Circumstances require my immediate return 
home. I called to bid you a hasty farewell until we meet 
in the summer." This was the finale. He never re- 
turned, nor was I able to trace his history, though circum- 
stances created a fear that his life was a sacrifice to that 
mistaken code which the world calls ' ' honor, ' ' in vin- 
dication of his own character or that of a friend. 

Sylvania, 15th of Sixth Mo., '86. 

A PLEA FOR ARBITRATION. 

It has been truly said that the world still moves, but 

not backwards ; and the glorious result of the forward 

movement is a terrible shaking among the dry bones of 

an antiquated and obsolete theology, and may be 



1 88 AUTOGRAPHIC AIv NOTES. 

hailed as the propitious harbinger of an approaching 
resurrection of the churches to a more spiritual life in 
Christ. The Rev. W. I. Packer writes : " The age is 
breaking up creeds ; and as this will go on, w T e shall 
not be known in twenty-five years as we are now. ' ' 

The harmonious result of the arbitration of an excit- 
ing question by two strong military nations has fully 
proved that national differences can be more cheaply 
and satisfactorily 'settled on a pacific basis than by 
resort to physical force. This affords encouragement 
for the hope that other nations may be induced to 
follow the example so nobly set them by the United 
States and Great Britain. 

There are, perhaps, only two general means whereby 
the practice of war can be abolished : 

i st. By the masses of the people becoming so Chris- 
tianized as to discover that Christians cannot fight. 

2d. By the masses — rulers and subjects — learning 
from sad experience that wars are not only always 
wrong, but always impolitic, always a losing game even 
to the winner. 

In the use of the first means the last fifteen centuries 
have made, it would seem very little progress. Its 
time has not yet fully come. Of the second, we can 
only be hopeful. So long as a high and honorable re- 
ward is bestowed on the victors in the most bloody 
achievements, the millennial terminus of war would 
seem to be yet a great way off. But let us not despair. 
Auspicious signs loom up from the murky horizon and 
shed their cheering rays over the gloomy forebodings of 
the future. 

The same progressive civilization which has despoiled 
so many crowned heads of arbitrary and unlimited power 
in relation to war, will continue more and more to wrest 



KZRA MICHENKR, M. D. 189 

the war-making power from the hands of the governors 
and to place it in the hands of the governed, where it 
properly belongs, if it belongs anywhere. Kings no 
longer make conquests and plunder pretexts for going 
to war and men who would cheerfully defend their 
homes and country are no longer willing to fight merely 
to gratify the ambition or the avarice of their rulers. 

The time is not far distant when the people, those 
who have to do the fighting, will claim the right to 
judge when it is necessary and right that they should 
fight. It is here that our strongest hopes must center. 
We must look for a fuller acknowledgment, a greater 
respect for the right and reciprocal duties of men, both 
individually and in the great family of nations. 

We must learn to substitute reason and justice for the 
wild impulse of passion and a resort to physical force. 
We must look to that exalted sense of moral rectitude 
which requires that l ' All things whatsoever ye would 
that men should do unto you, do you even so unto 
them." 

It is recorded of Robert Barclay, that on one occasion 
a highwayman pointed a pistol at his breast and de- 
manded his purse. With his usual calm self possession, 
he looked at the robber full in the face, and with a firm, 
though meek benignity, assured him that he was his 
and every man's friend ; that he was willing and ready 
to relieve his wants ; that he was free from the fear of 
death, through a divine hope of immortality, and there- 
fore was not to be intimidated by a deadly weapon. 

The same soothing influence can be brought to bear 
upon the wild excitement of the insane, and points as 
directly and hopefully to that suggestive scripture, 
" Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the 
world." 



190 AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTES. 

REFLECTIONS ON THE SUBJECT OF A PAID 
MINISTRY. 

The question is, Can the teaching of men qualify a 
person to preach the gospel of Christ, or does it require 
the direct aid and direction of the Holy Spirit to do so? 

Facts are stubborn things, and the success or failure 
of our experience often affords us lessons of instruction. 
Now it is a fact that Jesus of Nazareth was the greatest 
and most excellent minister ; the ablest and best 
qualified, as well as the only infallibly correct the- 
ologian ; also the most industrious and persevering in 
his efforts to instruct his followers in all the great and 
sublime doctrines of moral and religious truth ; yet it 
is also a fact that with all his teaching and the power- 
ful influence of his perfect example, he does not appear 
to have made one of his pupils a gospel minister. And 
why ? Because Jesus himself was only an instrument 
of the Christ Spirit, and could not impart to others the 
efficacy of the anointing power of the Christ which he 
had received. 

The phrase, "Hireling Minister," is often used 
without due discrimination, and I think, in its strict 
and liberal signification, does not very clearly express 
the idea which it is used to convey. 

Jesus himself declared, " The laborer is worthy of his 
hire." — Luke, 10-7. The minister needs physical 
sustenance, and his ministry, if properly authorized, 
should not be marred by the want of it. Rather let the 
helping hand of the brethren in unity afford the neces- 
sary means to carry out the good work. Literally, this 
might be called a paid or hireling ministry. But the 
difficulty does not lie just here. The ministerial office 



EZRA MICHKNER, Mi D. 191 

has grown up very far beyond this. It has become one 
of high popular respectability. It brings to its possessor 
an unwonted influence over his fellow men, and, if 
successful, brings to him a handsome remuneration. 
Hence it is no cause of wonder that parents often devote 
to and educate their sons for the ministry, nor need we 
marvel that thousands of young men should become 
ambitious of clerical honors without perhaps an} T 
especial religious feeling or consciousness of responsi- 
bility. Their education completed, they throw them- 
selves upon the market and await the highest bid. It 
is this man-made ministry, this making merchandise of 
the gospel, which George Fox denounced and which 
is still denounced by those who have embraced what 
they deem the spirituality of the Christian dispensation. 
Those who have not reached this experience are still 
dwelling under the old covenant dispensation of 
ritualistic forms and sacrifices as written on the perish- 
able tables of stone and not as " The Epistles of Christ, 
written with the spirit of the living God on the fleshly 
tablets of the heart. ' * 

Do not understand me that all who are called hireling 
ministers must and do continue to dwell in this outer 
court — far from it. Many of them, no doubt, have 
known and do know in their own living experience, 
that " the grace of God that bringeth salvation, hath 
appeared unto all men, teaching us that denying 
ungodliness and the world's lusts we should live soberly, 
righteously and godly in this present world, showing 
all good fidelity that we may adorn the doctrine of God 
our Saviour in all things." 

To these cursory observations or the correctness of 
them, let the following abbreviated records testify : 



192 AUTOGRAPHIC AL NOTES. 

( ' I will make a new covenant with the house of 
Israel, saith the Lord ; I will put my law in their 
inward parts and write it on their hearts, and I will 
be their God and they shall be my people. They shall 
no more teach every man his neighbor saying, Know 
the Lord, for all shall know me from the least unto 
the greatest of them. "—Jer. 30-33-34. 

' ' The eyes of the blind shall be opened ; the ears of 
the deaf shall be unstopped ; the lame shall leap as a 
heart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing. Waters 
shall break out in the wilderness, and streams in the 
desert, and a highway shall be there and it shall be 
called the way of holiness. The unclean shall not pass 
over it ; but it shall be for those : the way-faring men, 
though fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be 
there nor any ravenous beast, but the redeemed shall 
walk there." — Isa. 35 \ 5-6-8-0. 

Jesus declared, "The kingdon of God cometh not 
with observation, neither shall they say lo, here ! or lo, 
there ! for behold the kingdon of God is within you.' ' — 
Luke 77, 20-21. 

And again, " It is expedient for 3-011 that I go away. 
If I go not away, the comforter will not come unto you ; 
but if I depart, I will send him unto you. When he, 
the spirit of Truth, is come, he will guide you into all 
truth."— John 16, 7-13 

' ' Go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name 
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, 
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have 
commanded you ; and lo ! I am with you always — even 
to the end of the world." — Mat. 38, 70-20. 



EZRA MICHENER, M. D. 193 

1 ' Being assembled with them, he commanded them 
that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for 
the promise of the Father, which ye have heard of me ; 
for John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be 
baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. 
And ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost is 
come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me unto 
the uttermost parts of the earth." — Acts i, £-5-8. 

" The righteousness which is of faith, speaketh in this 
wise : The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and 
in th} 7 heart ; that is the word of faith which we 
preach." — Rom. 10, 8. 

"As every man hath received the gift, even so min- 
ister the same one to another as good stewards of the 
manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him 
speak as the oracles of God. If any man minister, let 
him do it as of the ability which God giveth, that God 
in all things may be glorified." — I. Peter 4, 10-11. 



The following reminiscences (and many more might 
be added) of kind and sympathizing friends, need not 
flatter, nor were they intended to, the vanity of the 
Old Man ; but the} 7 do afford him comforting evidence 
of the appreciation of other and younger generations, 
who thus testify to their estimation of his long and 
earnest labors on their behalf. 

They moreover serve to soothe and sweeten the loneli- 
ness and feebleness of the twilight of more than ninety 
years. 



194 AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTES. 

A dear friend, in concluding an interesting letter, 

adds : 

u A few more years may yet remain, 

A few more gifts thy soul attain, 

To fill, complete, thy line of duties here ; 

So when at last thy race is run, 

And low descends thy setting sun, 

Thou'lt meet the shade without a doubt or fear. 

My palsied hand and failing sight, 
Proclaim the near approach of night ; 

The rending of the tie that hinds me here. 
This scene will pass, the curtain drop, 
The fluttering wheel of life will stop, 

And soon on earth shall end my brief career. 

But can the grave the soul confine ? 

Can matter there with soul combine 
To form against a senseless mass of dust ? 

As well suppose new forms may spring 

Without a primal grim to bring 
The lifeless atoms into order just. 

But still apart from physic's laws, 
From which our ready reason draws 

Conclusions from the soul's unending time, 
There still remains the fond desire, 
For something higher and still higher, 

Breathed by man in every age and clime. 

This thought cannot from nothing grow ; 

A fount can not from nothing flow ; 
A spring, tho' secret must its stream supply. 

The bud bespeaks a parent shoot, 

The branching stem a parent root ; 
So mind to mind must ever make reply. 

We thus through kindred lines may see 

What God's immortal mind must be, 
Since He's the source whence mind has flown. 

This faith I state for those who ask, 

And here I close my evening task, 
Of tracing o'er what thou and I have known.'* 



EZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 195 

West Chester, 25th of Eleventh Mo., '85. 
My Dear Aged Friend : 

This is the anniversary of thy birthday. I thought of thee as I 
Li woke this morning, and could fully appreciate thy loneliness, 
though not alone. Thy great loss, so fully recognized by thee, has 
brought thee near, so well do I understand all the varied feelings 
resulting therefrom. 

How we have been humbled under a sense of our loneliness, and 
to whom can we go ? Truly, we are brought to depend upon Him 
who alone can bind up the broken heart and comfort the aged 
mourners. 

*While so closely in sympathy with you, I have full assurance 
that thou art under the protection of Him whose watch over us can 
never cease through all the seasons of varied conflict. 

S. J. S. 

Dear Uncle : 

I take the pen laid down by my friend, to congratulate thee on 
having lived to add another year to the many that have passed. 
While thou may feel at times that there has not been much 
accomplished, some of us think that those ninety years have been 
sown with good seed, that will yet bear fruit to the honor of that 
great Husbandman who has given so liberally of His stores for thy 
use. Thou hast had many deep and hard trials in thy life, and 
even at the evening hour thou art not exempt. But thy heavenly 
Father's love is over thee, and may it give to thy spirit a quiet 
peace that will rest as a crown of brightness upon thee, and sweeten 
thy last days. M. W. 



Hockessix, 24th of Eleventh Mo., '85. 
Dear Friend : 

I learn that this is thy birthday. May I hold a little converse 
with thee ? 

A green old age like thine is indeed beautiful to behold, and a 
source of thankfulness not only to thyself, but to all who are 
blessed thereby. 



196 AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTES. 

I go back in memory to childhood's years and see. thee, the wise 
counsellor and physician, the man of thought and intelligence in 
advance of those around thee. Giving lessons to mothers and 
daughters as few were capable of doing or had the disposition to 
do. Thy advanced thought for woman ; the justice of thy judg- 
ment in regard to the equality of sin in the sexes ; thy mercy for 
women so universally despised and condemned, while a brother, 
equally guilty, is admitted in good standing everywhere. 

Thou wert then " in thy prime," as people say ; yet ever since 
thy mind has been expanding and thy life engaged in promoting 
the best welfare of human kind. Trials as well as joy have 
fallen to thy share, but a well-balanced mind has enabled thee to" 
bear them with a cheerful acquiescence. Do we not realize wifh 
the poet : 

That more and more a providence 

Of love is understood, 
Making the springs of time and sense 

Sweet with eternal good. 
That death seems like a covered way 

Which opens into light, 
"Wherein no blinded child can stray 

Beyond the Father's sight. 
That toil and trial seem at last 

In memory's sunset air, 
Like mountain ranges overcast 

In purple distance fair. 
That all the jarring notes of life 

Seem blending in a psalm ; 
And all the angles of its strife 

Slow rounding into calm. 

And so the shadows fall apart ; 

And so the west winds play, 

And all the windows of my soul 

I open to the day. 

Thy Friend, 

L. H. P. 



EZRA MICHENKR, M. D. 197 

On this birthday occasion, so kindly remembered by 
my many friends, was written : 

MY NINETY-FIKST MILE-STONE. 

Three score and ten, the prophet said, 

Shall be the years of man ; 
And if by strength, four score be run, 

'Twill be with toil and pain. 
I've journeyed long aud oft alone 

Through dark and devious days, 
But thou, O Lord, was ever near, 

To point the ; ' better ways. ' ' 
Now almost blind and deaf and dumb, 

My feeble limbs in chains, 
Yet thanks to thee, O Holy One, 

The mind — the mind remains ! 
Weary and worn, I reach this spot, 

Where mortals seldom come ; 
A distant land-mark by the way — 

My mile-stone, ninety -one. 
Labor and sorrow we must know 

In due proportion sent ; 
But greater far the pleasures which 

Eeward a life w T ell spent. 
This is the lesson we should learn 

While youth and health prevail ; 
'Twill ease the toil and soothe the pain 

When health and vigor fail. 
Thy judgments, Lord, have often been 

The burden of my lot ; 
And, strangely, they as often were 

Too easily forgot. 
Yet not alone in judgments, Lord. 

Have I thy mercies known ; 
A rich reward for service done 
Has thy approval shown. 



198 AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTES. 

'Tis of thy mercy that I am 

In this forlorn degree ; 
Then gracious Father lend thy hand 

' And lead me up to thee. 
That in the cycle of thy love 

Thy purpose may endure, 
And my poor soul at last attain 

Thy rest and peace secure. 

E. MlCHENER. 

Following the above we may appropriately give an 
extract from a friendly letter, which brings us to the close 
of active literan r labor on the part of Dr. Michener, and 
as we close with his own offering, " My Ninety-Second 
Mile-Stone," we can but express the profound regret 
that his own mind, so clear and vigorous ; his own hand 
so firm and unswerving, might not have finished the 
work so systematically begun, or at least that more 
mature judgment and scholarly advantage could have 
supplemented that which has been a service of love but 
little more. Comp. 

Third Mo., 10th, '80. 
Dear Friend : 

Many favors have we already received at 

thy hand, yet I presume to ask another which I trust thee may be 
willing to grant — a copy of thy poem, written on thy ninety -first 
anniversary. We are very anxious to see and possess it, and shall 
value it highly. We were not aware of thy having reached thy 
four score years and ten. A good old age certainly and one to be 
proud of after a well spent life, as I doubt not thine has been. 
May the remaining years, whether few or many, be peaceful, serene 
and happy. 

A boon from heaven hast thou to be thankful for, in the blessing 
retained — a mind capable of enjoying life up to such an age, while 
so many even much younger, by the failure of all that makes life 



EZRA MICHENER, M. D. 199 

desirable — the mental faculties — live on without comfort to them- 
selves or to those about them. How mysterious and utterly 
beyond our comprehension are these things. 

Truly thy Friend, 

N. Newbold. 

MY MILE-STONE NINETY-TWO. 

Ihe car of life ! a wondrous train 
Unceasing rolls adown the plain, 

Nor ever to return. 
The young the old, the meek, the proud, 
Alike are jumbled in the crowd, 

One common fate to learn. 

The car is free alike to all ; 

Yea all must join the giddy thrall 

Without a stop or stay. 
The crowd increases as they go, 
Causing a constant overflow 

Anon, from day to day. 

The weak, the sick, even the strong, 
Are jostled off to ease the throng 

Of its accumulation. 
It is not chance, it is not fate ; 
'Tis Providence who gives the date 

To shorten or to lengthen. 

And so my life has hither run, 
From day to day, from sun to sun, 

A round of weary strife. 
Still hoping in the end to gain 
A recompense for all my pain, 

An endless, happy life. 

Another year hath run its course ; 
Another year hath spent its force 

On this time-honored crone. 
Since sad and weary, I sat down 
Upon yon cold, unfeeling stone, — 

My Mile-stone, Ninety-one. 



200 AUTO GRAPHICAL NOTES. 

Nor might I rest niy limbs so frail, 
The car ran swiftly down the vale, 

Unceasing in its flight. 
Sometimes the sun shone, bright and clear, 
Sometimes the clouds were dark and drear, 

Obscuring Heaven's pure light. 

This glorious morn, a cheering ray, 
Shone bright and clear at break of day, 

And kindly brought to view 
Along the dew-bespangled vale, 
The subject of my artless tale, 

My Mile-stone, Ninety-two. 

Here may I rest awhile to view 
The past, the present ; and renew 

My covenant of peace ; 
And thus prepare to join the throng 
Of aDgel spirits pure and strong 

Around the throne of grace. 



I 



EZRA MICHKNKR, M. D. 



20I 



HIS DECEASE. 



A Brief Retrospect. 



Ezra Michener, M. D., died at his late residence, 
near Toughkenamon, Chester Co., Penns} 7 lvania, on 
the morning of the 24th of 6th month, 1887, at the 
advanced age of ninety-two years and seven months. 

He was a life-long, interested and active member of 
the Religious Society of Friends. He contributed 
largely to the religious, moral, scientific and miscella- 
neous literature of his da} 7 , as the following memoran- 
dum, which he had preserved, of his published pro- 
ductions, testify : — 

1st Class, Books, etc., 



2d 

3d 
4th 

5th 
6th 



Medical Reports, etc., 

Agricultural Essays, etc., 

For Friends' Intelligencer and 

Journal, etc., 
Daily Eocal News, etc., 
Miscellaneous, 



Total, 



15 
23 
49 

50 

90 

270 

497 



He was in frequent correspondence with many of the 
most eminent scientists of his time, and the noted 
Agassiz said of him, ' ' that he did not belong exclu- 
sively to Chester County, Pennsylvania or America, 
but to the whole scientific world. ' ' 



202 AUTOGRAPHICAI, NOTES. 

His large collection of natural history, including 
over five hundred species of birds, animals and rep- 
tiles, the greater portion of which had been collected 
and mounted by his own hands, was taken to Swarth- 
more College in 1869, and placed in its museum. It 
was lost in the fire that occurred there a few years later. 
Extensive and valuable herbariums of flowering and 
cryptogamous plants, and a well arranged cabinet of 
salt-, fresh- water and land shells and other productions 
of nature remaining in possession of his children, 
attest his valuable labor. 

In 1855 he built a new mansion in an open area of 
two or three acres, and planted the grounds with a 
large variet}^ of evergreen and deciduous trees and 
shrubber}'. ' From the study of these he derived much 
pleasure, and lived to see many of them attain sur- 
prising proportions. Several years previous to his 
decease, one of these (a Paulo wnia Imperialis), was 
taken down and its trunk sawed into boards of which, 
at his request, his coffin was made. 
















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